American Dragon: The Third Evanescence
by James Wright
Summary: Within the depths of New York City, Jake is fast approaching many new changes: adulthood, college, and his fate as a protector of magical creatures. Yet as he struggles with his uncertain future, Jake finds himself trapped by the collision of the human and magical worlds. With his way of life in jeopardy, will Jake find balance or fall victim to his birthright?
1. It's Raining Men

**American Dragon: The Third Evanescence**

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James Wright, ©2016

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 **Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own American Dragon: Jake Long or any of its creative material aside from original characters and plots.**

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 **Preface**

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Welcome everyone, regular visitors and newcomers alike.

Before you begin, I wish to make one thing clear: this story is intended for everyone. Regardless of how acquainted you are with the American Dragon cartoon, this story has been written with the goal of being enjoyable for anyone with a passion for fantasy. It requires no foreknowledge or expectations, only an enthusiasm for adventure. For those who are familiar with American Dragon, this story will delve into a subject that has thus far been avoided: the final collision of the human and magical worlds. It is a topic filled with wild possibilities that I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy.

I also feel obliged to warn that I hope to write the majority (if not all) of the complete story before publishing further chapters. In other words, updates may not be in for some time but they'll be consistent when they do arrive.

Now, I don't want to detract any further from the story itself. Follow the story or my account if you want to stay updated when I put out new material, review or PM me with any opinions, suggestions, or criticisms you may have, and favorite the story to give it publicity if you enjoy it!

Happy Reading,

- _James_

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 **Chapter One: It's Raining Men**

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Monsters thrived unseen in the depths of New York City, and that was just the way they liked it.

In truth this infestation was not unique to the Big Apple; tales around the world have told of creatures sneaking beneath beds and going bump in the night for millennia. In the modern age of rationality, however, demons were more often known by human names and faces. They could be seen, captured, punished, and while many slunk by unnoticed their existence was well known and simply accepted as a hazard of urban society. Now and then the evening news would parade a drugstore thief or corrupt official, and that was enough to satisfy the skeptics of the world who reveled in knowing all they thought lay beneath the belly of their concrete beast.

It was this perplexing combination of confidence and utter obliviousness that gave the rest of New York City's discrete populace true anonymity. They were those beings who had long been discarded as the stuff of legends, whose mere presence was beyond the imagination of all but the most deranged and eccentric. They were admired by the whimsical and romanticized throughout the arts, yet their revelation would single handedly shake the very foundations of society. They were everywhere and nowhere, universal yet impossible.

They were creatures of magic.

And as with all world-threatening secrets, these creatures had their protectors. One such sentinel was a young man of eighteen, who if you happened to pass on the street would seem nothing more than a somewhat short Asian skater with flashy clothes and a cocky grin. He was perfectly ordinary, except perhaps for the spiky black hair with green highlights, and on an early summer's day was hidden away in the dusty living room of a north Brooklyn townhome. Lying back on a couch wrapped in plastic, he held a stiff pillow over his eyes and blocked out the waning evening sunlight as the smell of mingled mothballs and wood polish hung over him.

His name was Jake Long, and today was a very important day.

"Mm-hmm, here's a good one Jakey." There was a playful chuckle and a smooth, stern girl's voice snapped out. "McDonnegy Concord of 1365, go!"

"Treaty signed by the warring Leprechaun clans of Europe, ending the Great Shamrock Crisis of the fourteenth century."

"Uh-uh, need more than that, playa. _How_ did it end the crisis?"

"It uh…" Jake bit his lip and pressed the pillow to his face until he could taste its starchy lint. Then he remembered. "Oh! They agreed to start putting their magic into gold instead of clovers!"

A deeper voice whistled off to his side. "Bro, you're killing it! All that studying totally paid off, even though you missed out on a ton of skating, video games, hanging out-"

Jake sat up to the squeaking of plastic and tossed his pillow aside. "Yo Spud, kind of on a tight schedule remember? Less torture, more questions."

Slouching at the foot of a covered recliner, Arthur Spudinski was surrounded by a mess of thick weathered books and staring into space with his mouth sagging open. Jake had first met the boy when he was a lanky boy addicted to baggy clothes, rock music, and computers, and he had since remained unchanged but for an even more exaggerated height and his chin-worth of scraggly peach fuzz.

"Relax, Jakey. It's all good." A dark skinned young woman lounged to Jake's right, a tome open in her lap while she focused on the screen of her phone. Trixie Carter was her name, and it was largely because of her mature and determined attitude that they had all been such good friends since childhood, even though her punk clothes and demeanor suggested an entirely different persona. "It's only been a month since we graduated, there's still plenty of summer vacation left to go around."

Jake nodded to her glowing device. "What could there be left to look up? I brought every book I could find in Grandpa's shop!"

"Hm? Oh, this ain't for magic review. Just looking at classes for-" Trixie paused before flicking her phone back to black and sitting up with a dismissive wave. "Ah forget it. I gotta think of another question anyway, that is if _someone_ would stop holding up the line..."

"Right, my bad." Spud scratched at the beanie covering his lengthy brown hair and flipped through one of the dusty books. "Uh huh...hm...oh that's neat…"

Jake rolled his eyes. " _Spud!_ "

"Okay, okay, here's one." He flattened out one of the pages and cleared his throat. "What's the difference between a centaur, a satyr, and a faun?"

"Pft, piece of cake. Centaurs are human on top and whole horse on bottom. Satyrs and fauns are basically the same thing, but their legs are from goats and they've only got two."

"For real, step up your game Spud." Trixie leaned toward Jake and perked her eyebrow. "You ready? What's the governing body for all magical creatures?"

"Oh, so _you_ get to ask easy questions," Spud snapped.

"Seriously Trix," Jake agreed. "It's the Dragon Order. That's like Magic 101."

"And what are the three pillars of the Dragon Order?" she persisted.

Jake groaned. "This again? We've been over them like ten times already-"

"-and I see them every time I open one of these books, even that one about gargoyle diets. That means they're important, Jakey." She snapped her fingers impatiently. "C'mon already, you'll thank me later."

What she wanted was a mantra Jake had repeated countless times and knew by heart, just like the rest of his fellow magical protectors, but he also knew there was no refusing Trixie. Reluctantly, he held up a hand and counted off on his fingers. "Judgment, to serve all creatures equally; courage, to never falter in duty; and wisdom, to find serenity in strife."

Spud tapped the spine of a book against his head, his look of puzzled curiosity returned. "You know, I never really got the _wisdom_ part. It's like they're telling you to be happy by making trouble or something. Doesn't sound all that wise when you think about it."

"It doesn't mean to go looking for problems," Jake said. "It's more like learning to deal with stuff you can't fix. Keep a cool head, you know? Gramps always said-"

There was the sound of a door creaking open and the smacking of feet on hard floor. The teens craned their necks toward the home's entryway to see two adults, one a squat woman with copiously styled hair and the other a tall man with all of Spud's thin length and none of his casual bearing.

Spud clambered up as they walked in through the room, rubbing his neck and calling in an innocent tone, "Mom! Dad! I, uh, didn't think you'd be home so-"

"Arthur, where on Earth did you get all of these dirty...what are they, textbooks?" Mr. Spudinsky picked up one of the volumes by his feet and sniffed at the wrinkled leather cover. "Don't tell me these are for your studies in the fall?"

Spud blinked at the man with a dumb look before smiling broadly. "Yes, that! Textbooks! For college! That's _exactly_ what these are for, just school. Books for college, college books! Nothing else, no sir, heh..."

They waited for Mr. Spudinsky to give Spud a single nod and set the book down with a grimace. "Well they're absolutely ragged, and overpriced no doubt. I told you that Harvard or Yale were much better options, but you refused to listen."

Spud sighed and moved to guide his parents out of the room. "Thank you for the reminder, dad. It's awesome having this conversation three times a day-"

The man brushed past his exasperated son and stepped further into the room. "Trixie, good to see you again. How are things? You must be excited, I'm sure."

"Same as always, Mr. S," she smiled tentatively. "And it's kinda nerve-racking to be honest."

He flashed her a grin before turning to Jake. "And you Mr. Long? How goes the job hunt? You know we always have positions open at the restaurant, or have you decided on a trade school?"

"Dad, this really isn't a good time-"

Jake bit back his irritation and forced a smile. "S'all good. I've got some things in the works, but thanks anyway Papa Spud."

"I only mean that it's important to-"

Spud gasped dramatically. "Mom, I almost forgot! There's, like, a _ton_ of huge cockroaches in the kitchen! They're everywhere, crawling all over the pots and counters with their hairy little feet and stuff!"

The short woman gaped in horror at her son. She dropped her purse and dragged Mr. Spudinsky out of the room by his elbow, shouting, "Bugs in _my_ house, oh no sirree! Come on, Stew, we're going to war! So help me if they so much as _sniffed_ that casserole…"

The two whirled out behind the kitchen door. Trixie shook her head in their wake. "They're cool and all Spud, but I still can't believe those peeps are your legit parents."

Spud made an annoyed grunt, knuckle deep in scratching his armpit. "I know, right? I mean cockroaches are adorable, like what's there to freak out about? And just ignore my dad, Jake. He's probably just got his extra small whitey tighties on today or something."

Jake waved him off. "It's cool Spud. I've got other things to worry about anyway. Speaking of, how much time we got left? Fu?"

The three looked between each other and realized that none of them had in fact seen the fourth member of their group in some time. Trixie squinted at the other two. "He _was_ here, wasn't he?"

"Fu? Fu! Fu, where are you?" Jake bent down off of his couch and dug through the piles of books around them. Metal clanged from the room over to the commanding shouts of Spud's frantic mother while Trixie and Spud joined Jake in his search.

"Come out, come out Fu!" Spud called.

Trixie came out from her hunt behind the TV. She tapped a finger on her chin and wondered aloud, "He's gotta be here somewhere. Think...if _I_ were Fu, where would I…"

They all stopped and shared a knowing look. "The kitchen."

" _Wah! What in the - is that a DOG?_ "

" _ARTHUR!_ "

"Please don't be the casserole, _please_ don't be the casserole-" Spud sped out of the room and into the kitchen. Jake and Trixie listened to the following commotion of shouts and what sounded like flying cookware until Spud backed into the living room, dragging a flabby gray Chinese shar pei by his mass of folded skin.

" _Ruff, ruff_ \- but I wasn't finished!" the dog whined after the door closed again.

Trixie glared at him with her hands on her hips. "Boy, you are an 800 year old animal guardian. Work up some self-control!"

Spud let go of Fu Dog, whose rump fell to the ground with a _thump_. The dog pointed a paw at Trixie and snapped, "Hey sister, you try living on diet Kibbles 'n Bits and see how long you go without a snack!"

Jake sighed. "Fu, we'll talk about how messed up this is later. How are we doing on time?"

Fu shrugged, standing upright on his hind legs and brushing out his endless wrinkles. "How should I know? I'm a _dog_ , kid."

"Yeah, a _talking_ dog that we agreed would keep an eye on the clock while we studied!"

"Alright, alright, sheesh. I've been looking after your family since before you were born, and when have I ever let you down? Actually, don't answer that." Fu felt around his belly, dug a paw into his cavernous folds, and pulled out a small wristwatch in his claws. "We haven't been here that long, I'm sure we've got plenty of...oh boy."

" _Fu?_ "

The shar pei tugged at his collar and coughed. "Heh, say, uh, what time was it at again? And are we on Daylight Savings, or-?"

"Give me that." Jake snatched the watch away and read the face thrice over before finally letting his stomach plummet.

"So how bad is it exactly? Kid?"

A rush of thoughts and emotions was flooding Jake's mind, and none of it was in the least bit helpful. "Fifteen minutes. We have to make it to Grand Central in fifteen minutes." He closed his eyes and thumped his knuckles against his head trying to concentrate. "Skateboard's too slow, traffic's gonna be jammed, and the sub's never on time. There's no way, unless…"

"Unless what? You don't mean…" Fu backed away from him and folded his arms. "No way, nuh-uh, not in broad daylight! And you know how I hate being - _hugh!_ "

Jake hefted the shar pei up and slung him over his shoulder. "Well suck it up, we're out of time. Sorry Spud, promise I'll come back and get this place cleaned up after I'm done!"

"Who cares?" Spud leaned out and gave him a parting fist bump. "You go kick some serious butt, bud!"

Trixie jumped around the furniture and wrapped them both in a brief hug. "Knock 'em dead, you hear?"

"Thanks guys." Jake broke away and hurried to throw open the front door and charge outside. "I'll be back before you know it! Holla!"

"Just a - heads up - kid," Fu bounced on Jake's shoulder to the rhythm of his gait. "I'm not - really sure - what I ate - or if it - was even - really _food_."

"Puke on the jacket, Fu, and I'll drop you." After passing only a few relatively quiet streets, Jake had reached the East River waterfront at the edge of Brooklyn. The rest of New York awaited them just beyond the stretch of water, and Jake already knew how they'd get there. "Check it: we'll go under the Manhattan Bridge, cut through the subway tunnels, and _bam_ , Grand Central baby."

Fu pushed back to look him in the face. "You know the rules, kid, no flying during daytime unless it's an emergency. You're gonna be seen!"

Jake ignored his animal guardian and set him down before edging toward the concealed alley of a nearby store. He checked for witnesses one last time and turned his attention inward. Within him, somewhere around where he expected his heart would be, he could feel a ball of soothing warmth. It was something that he'd been born with, a special power passed on in his family. Since turning thirteen it had given him extraordinary abilities, far beyond those of any normal human, and in exchange he was charged to watch over all magical creatures. It was a blessing and a curse, a gift and a burden.

Yet in moments when Jake tapped into that warmth as he did now, he felt no spite or grief. There was only ecstasy.

"Dragon UP!"

The little ball of warmth erupted, shooting torrents of burning strength throughout Jake's body. He could feel flames covering him entirely as reality blurred around him, but instead of smoldering into ash he was transformed in an instant. Where the unassuming teen had stood only seconds ago, there now towered a flesh and blood dragon. The beast looked as though it were borne straight from Arthurian legend; brilliant red scales covered its hide with yellow running the length of its underbelly, ferocious claws tipped its hands and feet, black and green flares ran along its spine, and its face protruded with a broad maw and pointed ears.

The crimson dragon that was now Jake Long flexed his wings and cradled Fu Dog in his sturdy arms. "Chill, Fu. I'll be careful. Not that I'd have to be careful if _someone_ had kept time like they were supposed to."

"I get it already! Oh brother, just make it fast will ya?"

"Dawg, fast is my specialty."

"How did I know you were gonna say th- _aaaAHAAH!_ "

Rushing wind drowned out Fu's shouts as Jake hurled into the air and sped along the waterfront. He kept low and close behind the buildings along the river, sticking to the shadows and streaking through breaks in his cover with powerful beats of his wings. In no time at all they had reached the Manhattan Bridge, and Jake banked hard to soar just below the massive structure. Rush hour traffic roared above them, and now and then Jake would roll or dive through gaps in the expressway supports with shouts of exhilaration.

He tumbled through another row of beams and felt a pinch as Fu tried digging into his scales. "I get the feeling that - _hrghbr -_ you're trying to make me sick here!"

Wailing sirens overhead made Jake perk his ears up, and he picked up what sounded like the churning blades of a helicopter. He sped on and focused on the end of the bridge. "Now why would I do that, Fu? It's not like you almost ruined the single most important day of my life or anything!"

"Give me a break, alright? How many times am I gonna have to say I'm - GAAH! HEADS UP KID!"

Fu's outburst came late, for Jake had already seen it. A blue object had appeared from beyond the edge of the bridge's scaffolding and was plummeting toward the East River. Jake halted in surprise and curiously watched the strange blur, until he realized it was in fact a man flailing about as he screamed into the empty air.

Before he'd had a chance to think, Jake was falling in a steep dive. He tucked Fu beneath one arm and held the other out, reaching toward the tumbling man. Hitting the water from this height would be like smacking into concrete, but Jake managed to snare his claws into the man's belt and pitch upward long before that happened.

He shifted the frankly overweight stranger beneath his other arm and careened back beneath the bridge. Fu was trembling on Jake's other side and pulled his paws away from his eyes to gasp at the man. "Oh for the love of - _look at what you did now!_ "

"Don't you give me that!" Jake snapped over the struggling man's yells. "What, I shoulda just let him decorate the East River?!"

"Out of all the people you coulda caught, did it have to be a _cop?!_ "

Confused, Jake looked down at his passenger and indeed found the blue uniform, black holsters, and gleaming badge of one of New York's finest. The man had gone quiet, choosing now to stare up at the dragon, his plump face contorted with speechless terror.

Jake turned forward as they reached the banks of Manhattan, flying up and into the dark depths of the subway tunnels. "Aw man."

"Well what are we gonna do?" Fu's voice echoed in the poorly lit passages. "You can't just show up with some copper, we've gotta ditch this guy!"

"I know, I know! Give me a sec! I'm trying to think...here!"

Jake stopped beside a small side corridor and set his patrons down in its grimy confines. Flames consumed him with a thought, and he returned his human body. "Alright Fu, you know the drill. EXCON level one."

"Way ahead of you kid." He stood up and again dug through his wrinkles, this time producing a corked vial of green sludge. "This is all I've got on me, so no more fishing for bystanders. Capisce?"

Jake took the vial and yanked out the stopper. He walked over to the officer where he was sitting against the wall, hugging his knees and eyeing him uncertainly. "W-who are you? Where am I? Wha...where did that _th-thing_ go?"

"Easy there, big guy. You just fell off a bridge." Jake kneeled down by the man and pointed to a ladder a few feet behind him. It was harder seeing in the darkness without the keen sensitivity of his dragon eyes, something he realized was probably contributing to his captive's apprehension. "We're in a service hatch, somewhere on Houston Street I think. Here, you look like you could use a drink. Just don't tell my moms, okay?"

The officer didn't budge. He was shaking, covered in sweat, and looked on the verge of snapping. Just when Jake felt certain things were headed south, the man suddenly sighed and unfolded himself. His hand shot out and grabbed the vial from Jake, and he tossed back its contents in a single gulp.

" _Oh Christ_ -" The officer grimaced with disgust and fell into a coughing fit. "That's _awful_ \- the hell are kids drinking these days?!"

"Not what you were expecting, huh?" Jake helped him to his feet and guided him toward the ladder as he continued to heave from the concoction. "That was a Memory Potion, not booze. It'll make you forget everything magical you've seen over the past day or two, and don't worry, it's completely safe. I've given it to tons of people, no wack side effects."

They reached the ladder and the officer grabbed onto its dirty rungs. A lost expression came over him as he turned back to Jake. "Uh...who are you? What are you doing in my office?" He looked around blearily at their murky surroundings. "This...isn't my office…"

"That's what I like to hear. One more thing." Jake poked the blue button-up pulled taut over his rotund belly. "Cut back on the donuts, dude, I've carried _pianos_ that weren't as heavy. Only bad guys you're catching are chairs."

"Well for your information I'm on a diet - wait, kid!"

"Not a kid!" Jake cleared out of the passageway and took off down the tunnel, Fu panting along at his heels. "Same goes for you Fu," he added over his shoulder. "Totally not a kid anymore. Not after today."

"You'll always be a kid to me - _huff_ \- kid. Now are we walking all the way to Central - _huff_ \- or what?"

Bright flames scattered light over the tunnel walls, and Jake picked Fu up by the collar in his claws. "Okay, now you're just asking for it."

"You know you love me."

A beat of Jake's wings lifted them off the ground and they took off down the railways. Fu held his eyes shut again, though there wasn't much to see besides scattered emergency lights, occasional rodents, and endless dirt. Even with so few landmarks, Jake had flown the lines enough to know which passages were vacant and which to avoid. Their trip was brief at his speed, and before long their gloomy background began giving way to light and commotion.

"Made it." Jake landed just before the station's platform and transformed back into a human. He lifted Fu out of the tracks and jumped up himself, looking around the crowded terminal. "Alright, from here it should be...or is it…?"

Fu vanished into the throng on all fours. "Come on, kid! This way!"

The shar pei bounded off the platform, through a turnstile, and up the stairs beyond. Jake chased him through the terminal, shoving through pedestrians and avoiding luggage as well as could be expected, until he came to the main floor. There he found a horde of businessmen, tourists, families, even street performers, but not a single shar pei was in sight.

"Fu!" Jake wheeled around in a circle, scanning every inch of the crowd for his guide. "Yo Fu Dog! FU!"

"JAKE!"

Turning at the summons, Jake spotted a short old Asian man with blue robes and flowing white hair. Unsurprisingly, the sight was not as comforting as he would have hoped. "Grandpa! I was just looking for - _ow, OW!_ Cut it out!"

His grandfather smacked him a few more times with his rolled up newspaper, hurling what Jake could only assume were obscenities at him in Cantonese. "Of all the selfish, irresponsible, childish things you have done!"

"Gramps, if you just listen-"

"YOU ARE FIVE MINUTES LATE!" He rang his makeshift weapon against Jake a few more times to the baffled looks of passersby. "And why have you not answered your phone? Grandpa has been calling you!"

"G, my phone wasn't going off! Fu and me were in the subway tunnels, I probably didn't have any bars!"

"And _why_ were you in the tunnels?!"

"Uh...that's kind of a long story, see - _ow!_ " Jake swatted away the newspaper and bent down closer to his grandfather. "Seriously gramps, I'm already late! Help me find Fu and...Fu?"

Looking supremely unconcerned, Fu wandered up to them through the crowd, a wrapped hotdog caught in his jaws.

"Hey, you found Lao Shi!" He sat between them, peeled the foil off of his prize, and ate half of the frank in a single bite. "So...what'd I miss?"

" _Fu-_ "

"There is no time Jake!" Lao Shi caught him by the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him through the terminal. "The Dragon Council is expecting you, though I doubt your tardiness will be a surprise."

They broke free of the bustling traffic and came to a rest area with elevators lining the walls. Lao Shi walked to the silver doors at the farthest end and, after discretely looking over his shoulder, pressed the call buttons in an absurdly complex sequence. A soft chime sounded, and the arrows above the door lit up an unnatural green.

"This is it young dragon. Remember, you have only one chance." His grandfather's tone was serious, devoid of all of his previous irritation. "Do your best, trust in your training, and know that no matter what happens I am proud of you."

Strangely, his words only served to make Jake queasy. "No worries, G. I've got this puppy in the bag, ya heard?"

Fu was licking ketchup off of his paw. "Oh yeah, he's scared alright."

"What?! Please, yo, the Am-Drag is anything BUT scared!"

"Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that. A little confidence never hurt." The elevator doors slid open and Fu spun Jake around and toward the compartment. "You'll do great kid! Just remember, I'm putting all my biscuits on you!"

Jake stepped into the elevator, wincing at the antiquated wallpaper, shag carpeting on the floor _and_ ceiling, and short green creature working the controls in the corner. The scenery alone was enough to make him dizzy.

The goblin yawned and welcomed him with a wheezing voice. "Welcome to Enchanted Elevators, where service-"

"Yeah-yeah-yeah, can we skip all that? Isle of Draco, kind of in a hurry."

The operator shrugged and started playing with the dials and knobs on his panel. Jake looked back at Lao Shi and wore the best grin he could muster. "Any last words for your star pupil?"

His grandfather smiled back and pointed a finger to his own heart. "All that you need is right here, young dragon. But if you insist, remember this: a gem is not polished without friction-"

"-nor a man perfected without trials," Jake hummed, now grinning sincerely. "I remember."

Without warning the doors slammed shut. A tingling spread over Jake's feet as they became anchored to the floor, and the goblin cranked a lever with a sigh. "Enjoy your ride, I guess."

Jake flung his hands over his head, which did little as the elevator box launched straight down into the bowels of the Earth at neck breaking speed. Like dropping on a roller coaster, his stomach flew into his throat and he lost all sense of direction. Unlike a roller coaster, however, his discomfort persisted for what felt like ages, refusing to subside as they hurtled on and on. It may have been the quickest way of travelling to an island on the other side of the world, but that didn't mean Jake had to enjoy it.

As fast as their departure had been, their journey came to an abrupt and jarring end. No time for adjustment was given to Jake, however, as the enchantment binding his feet to what was now the ceiling vanished, dropping him head-first to the ground. He tumbled forward, landed on a knee, and fought to keep in his lunch.

"Thank you for choosing Enchanted Elevators," droned the goblin, still glued upside-down to the ceiling. "We know you have many choices-"

"Dawg, seriously," Jake begged as he climbed to his feet. "Your elevator's about to get some new interior designing, if you catch my drift."

The goblin lazily pulled another lever. "It wouldn't be the first time."

The doors slid open, and Jake stepped out into a warm salty breeze. Temple-like columns and stonework surrounded him, and through the gaps he could see peaceful shores and a pristine dawning sky outside. He had arrived at his destination, and beyond the reception building where he now stood awaited the Isle of Draco, the ancestral seat of power for the entire Dragon Order.

Yet the seemingly calm sight only twisted Jake's stomach into even tighter knots. The island itself wasn't to blame for his nerves, as Jake had travelled here dozens of times over the years. Even when those visits were conducted under the worst of circumstances, he always had his friends and his Dragon Master to see him through to the end. Today, however, was a day unlike any other, and for once Jake would have to face it alone.

Today, Jake was going to take a test, his _final_ test. Today the Dragon Council would determine if he would finally become a world dragon and be a student no more.

"Crikey, would you look at that!"

Jake jumped at the voice and spun around. His shoulders slumped, however, when he found the approaching yellow scaled dragon with orange stripes and horns. "You've got to be joking…"

"Well I'll be stuffed. If it isn't Jake Long, the American Dragon!"

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	2. Trouble In Paradise

**V**

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 **Chapter Two: Trouble in Paradise**

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Of all the obstacles that Jake had anticipated encountering today, Fred Nerk had certainly not been one of them.

He sighed. "Look, Nerk, I don't know what you want but I'm really not in the mood to-"

"What's the matter, mate? I thought you'd be happy to see me!"

The earth-toned Australian Dragon walked forward, his maw crumpled in a cheeky grin. With a snap of his claws his dragon shape blurred and twisted, transforming into a tall youth with tan skin and curled red hair. It was this version of Fred Nerk that Jake had first encountered years ago during his inaugural visit to the Isle of Draco, and it was then that the two had developed their tenuous friendship. It wasn't that Jake disliked the boy, in fact they had much in common beyond their egos. It was simply difficult for him to see his rivals as anything but, and when it came to rivals Fred Nerk was at the top of the list.

The freckled boy was still smiling as he fixated on Jake's hair. "It's been, what, almost a year since our last go? How are you still this _short?_ "

Heat rushed to Jake's cheeks. "Yeah it has, _chump_ , and I can still wipe the floor with you any time, any place!"

"Is that so?" Fred leaned closer and snickered, "Well why don't you put your money where your fat, scaly mouth is?"

A halfcocked comeback was on the tip of Jake's tongue, but he forced it down with a growl. Fantasies of creative ways to use his clenched fists filled his thoughts, but now wasn't the time to indulge his imagination, no matter how tempting it was. "Whatever you want's gonna have to wait, Nerk. The Council's waiting for me and I'm already late."

Fred put a hand on Jake's back and shoved him toward the doorway at the end of the hall. Together they walked toward the bright light ahead. "You haven't changed a bit, Jakeroo. Pushing your buttons always was too easy. Truth is, I know you're here for your test. The Council sent me to fetch you."

"You came all the way from _down under_ just to walk me up the hill?" Jake asked, his disbelief plain. "In case you haven't noticed, Nerk, I'm a big dragon now. I think I can make it just fine on my own."

"That's what I said too, but I happened to be in the area. Besides, you can't really say 'no' to the Dragon Council, can you?"

Passing beyond the walls of the reception building, the two came upon a sight that never failed to amaze Jake. Jagged stone spires encircled the seaside cliff where they stood like the bones of some great, long dead beast, and further inland the massive peak of a still active volcano rose out of the ground and stretched into the clouds. The rugged spectacle was scarred by crags and ridges, and all manner of landscapes flourished in the surrounding hills. Grassy plains, dense forests, craters of flowing magma and spewing geysers, all were present and marked with the ancient stone temples of the Dragon Order.

Fred waved toward the great mountain ahead. "After you, mister _big_ dragon."

Flames rolled over Jake, and he soared into the air without complaint. He shouted back over his shoulder, "Try and keep up, _mate_."

Fred needed no further persuasion, which was well as Jake wasn't going to provide any. Before long a yellow dragon rose up beside him and together they flew toward the island's center. Of all the impressive architecture dotting the island, none was more prominent than the gold and glass palace built into the side of the mountain. The other halls and facilities paled in comparison to its splendor, and it was there that Dragon Council kept their chambers.

"So, you stoked?" Fred called beside him. "Not that you aren't nervous, that's obvious."

Jake's flight stuttered briefly. "I'm not nervous! Why does everyone keep saying that? I mean come on, if _you_ managed to pass last year then I won't even break a sweat."

"Face it, Long, you're nervous. I was nervous, everybody's nervous! It's _the_ test, after all. Your whole future depends on it; there's no second chances and they don't even tell you what it's gonna be or-"

"Yo, do you ever shut up or what?"

The emptiness left by Jake's outburst was filled only with passing wind. The Australian Dragon looked at him sideways before shrugging and swooping lower to land by a great stone entryway at the foot of the mountain. When Jake had landed beside him, they continued on into the cavernous hall beyond, the clacking of their claws on the stone floor echoing around them. The stretching chamber was as devoid of life as the rest of the island in the morning hours.

The silence between the two dragons had grown almost painful when Jake relented. "Fine, Nerk, you win. I'm nervous, okay? Well, more like freaking out."

Fred stopped and gave him a haughty smile. "Told ya, everybody is when it's their turn. But like you said, I made it through just fine and so have all the other world dragons. How hard could it be?"

Jake ran a hand through the hair atop his scaly head. "Well you know, just between you and me, it'd be even easier if I had a few clues or maybe some advice from someone more _experienced_ …"

"From who, me?" Fred barked a single laugh. "No way, you know the rules: no one talks about the test, to anyone, _ever_. The Dragon Council would have my hide, literally." He swiveled his horned skull around the hall, searching as he went. "Which reminds me, where are the old-timers? Favors are one thing, but they didn't say anything about babysitting."

"Knowing them, it's payback. My track record with punctuality isn't all that great." Jake eyed the open layout of the hall around them, appreciating how spacious and vacant it was but for the thirteen towering statues arranged along the perimeter. "Since we've got some free time, how's about we get some practice in? One-on-one, dragon to dragon?"

A gaping yawn was Fred's response. "At the crack of dawn? Come on, Long, give a bloke a fair go."

"Fine, I'll warm up by myself." Jake sat down on his haunches and leaned out to touch the claws of his feet. "Get some stretches in, go through a few stances, maybe meditate if there's time…"

"There's no good in getting tuckered out before the test even starts," Fred chided. "Besides, I reckon you've put in some training already."

Jake spat, "Some? Try drilling with Gramps non-stop, exercising dawn and dusk, reviewing thousands of years of bylaws, potions, artifacts-"

"Then _relax_." Fred yanked him out of his poses by his arm and dragged him across the hall. "Of all the people I know, you have the least to be worried about. Here, look at this fella. Who is he?"

After jerking his arm out of Fred's grasp, Jake followed his gaze to the statue they now stood in front of. Reaching all the way to the vaulted ceiling, the massive sculpture depicted an imposing man adorned in armored leathers with a cloak of fur pelts and a helmet made from a dragon's skull. Jake doubted he would ever forget the man or the deceptively mundane staff he wielded.

He folded his arms and turned to the yellow dragon. "Is there a point to this, Nerk, or do you just like asking dumb questions?"

"Humor me. Pretend I'm one of the councilors."

After sparing an eye-roll, Jake jerked a thumb at the rest of the hall behind them. "These thirteen jerks are the Dragon Council's most wanted. Or, as Fu Dog likes to call them, the Dirty Baker's Dozen. This skull-headed freak with bad taste in fashion is the Huntsman, number four on the list and leader of the magical creature poachers known as the Huntsclan."

Fred leaned on Jake's shoulder with unusual glee. "And what happened to this cheery fellow and all his merry men?"

"I know what you're trying to do, Nerk, but-"

"Ah ah, that's _Councilor_ Nerk to you."

Jake elbowed him away, smiling despite himself. "The Huntsman was sucked up into a magical vortex of doom and destroyed, along with the rest of the Huntsclan. And before you say it, there were a ton of people there that helped. I wasn't even the one that finished them off, it was-"

"But you were there, you helped make it happen!" said Fred. "You took down number four, and that was almost five _years_ ago! Here, here…" Once again Jake was dragged through the hall, this time to the very front beneath the largest of the statues. "Go on. Either you say it or I will."

This time, Jake only sighed with impatience as he looked up at the statue. The mass of stone detailed every curve and scale of a dragon the size of a small building, it's claws spread wide and jaws gaping toward the ceiling in a silent roar.

"Big bad number one," said Jake. "The Dark Dragon. No known name, background, or motives besides a taste for world domination and a serious god complex."

"And…?"

"Defeated four years ago in Hong Kong and trapped in another dimension for a thousand years."

"By _you_ , and don't give me that 'I had help' excuse." Fred watched him carefully now, his horned head shaking in bemusement. "You took down _two_ of the biggest nutjobs in the world, not to mention whatever else you've pulled off since then. Not that your fat ego needs stroking, but why are you so hung up on this test?"

Jake was transfixed on the Dark Dragon's effigy. Something about the copy of his former nemesis had him enthralled. "You do like asking stupid questions," he muttered. "You know what happens if I fail."

"The Council will take away your powers and banish you from the Dragon Order." Fred shrugged and grunted indifferently. "So what? Is having time for normal life that terrible? Plenty of dragons give their powers up for family, work, school-"

"And what if I don't have anything else?" grumbled Jake. "Dragon business is all I'm good at, all I've ever been good at! There's no college waiting for me, no backup plan, no friends! _Argh!_ " Jake burned with frustration, but he stamped his emotions down and focused on his breathing, refusing to give in to that insecurity. When he'd regained some composure, he turned back to Fred. "Look, I _love_ being the American Dragon. Helping people, making a difference, it's everything I could ever want. Without my powers...what's left?"

Despite how uncomfortable the confession was for Jake, Fred made no jokes or comments. He kept his peace and nodded sagely when Jake had finished. "I know what you mean, mate. It's a big deal, but you've gotta understand that part of the test is seeing how you deal with pressure." Then Fred's head cocked to the side inquisitively. "Wait, what about your two human pals? Didn't you tell me last time that you all wanted to go to the same universities? Didn't you apply or what?"

"You mean Trix and Spud. Well…" Jake rubbed his neck compulsively and avoided Fred's gaze. "That, uh, was the plan, and we all applied to a bunch of places. Trix and Spud are heading to Los Angeles in Cali', but I...didn't get in. Anywhere."

The beginnings of a grin tugged at Fred's lips. "You got rejected? By _everyone?_ "

"Well technically I never even heard back from UCLA - but it's not like I could've afforded it anyway!" Jake argued, heat rushing to his cheeks. "They gave Spud a bunch of grants because he's a genius, and Trix got hooked up with military scholarships through her dad. I didn't have that kind of cash, and no way am I getting buried in loans! And without school, I can finally focus on dragon business, no more distractions."

"Right, right, I get all that," Fred choked as he struggled to contain his bubbling laughter. "But just to be clear, how many rejection letters did you get again? It's just, even _I_ managed to get into uni' and-"

" _Nerk-_ "

"What? You probably wouldn't be able to handle it anyway, Long." Chuckles were escaping the Australian Dragon in small gasps. "It's all a bit - _kck_ \- out of your league; the coursework, the ripper parties, the _girls_ -"

"That's it, you're DEAD you piece of-!"

" _Dragon Long!_ "

The two froze in place, Jake's claws clamped against Fred's in one hand with his other reared back to strike. He relinquished his hold and snapped to attention, however, when he recognized the man who had called out to him from the back of the hall.

Jake blanched. "C-Councilor Kulde! What's, uh...what's up?"

The tall man with short trimmed white hair and beard watched them both expectantly, his eyes as blue and expressionless as frigid ice. "If you and the Australian Dragon are finished, we are ready to begin."

"Yeah - I mean yes! We're finished and I'm ready, so ready! Like, the most ready you've ever seen! I... _ugh_." Jake covered his face as Councilor Kulde ignored him and disappeared down a side passage. "I'm dead, so dead."

Fred put a hand on his back. "Relax, mate. If there's one thing you're good at, it's showing off. Just be you and she'll be right."

Jake sighed and trudged away from the yellow dragon. "Are all of you aussies this inspiring?"

Fred laughed back. "Just my specialty!"

The walk to meet his maker was torturous for Jake. He entered the passage where Councilor Kulde had vanished and travelled through it until he came upon a stone staircase that spiraled up through the mountain. There was too little room to fly comfortably over the tiresome steps, but Jake didn't mind. With his fate so close at hand, he would have given anything for another day of training, even another hour.

"McDonnegy Concord of 1365," he muttered, thinking back on the help he'd received from Spud and Trixie. Imagining them following just behind him helped ease the tightness in his chest. "Satyrs, centaurs, and fauns. Judgement, courage, and wisdom. Judgement-"

There was a loud _BANG_ somewhere above Jake, and an accompanying tremble ran through the staircase. He paused on the steps, listening intently to the crashes and slamming that followed soon after. It sounded as though someone were smashing glass and hurling furniture, and then suddenly there was silence. Jake could hear no more of the commotion above.

He quickened his pace. "Judgement-courage-wisdom, judgement-courage-wisdom..."

The top of the staircase led Jake to a plain circular room. It was bare but for a few tapestries of the Dragon Order's golden emblem and a set of large wooden doors set against the far wall, one of which stood slightly ajar.

"Councilors!" Jake stepped forward, unnerved by the eerie silence. He grabbed the open door by its wrought iron handle and eased it open. "Hello? Anybody - _Councilor Kulde!_ "

The Council Chambers, where the five members of the Dragon Council had gathered for all recorded history, was in shambles. Audience benches were overturned, chunks of stone were gouged out of the walls, and trails of glittering ice streaked over every visible surface. At the head of the room where the Councilor's seats awaited their occupants, the pale blue dragon form of Councilor Kulde was sprawled limply on the ground.

One flap of Jake's wings was enough to clear the distance. He landed beside the ice-breathing dragon and was relieved to see his chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm. Yet the signs of the struggle were clear, and Jake had no intention of sticking around for long.

"C'mon, Kulde. Wake up!" He shook the dragon by his shoulders and tapped the side of his face. Councilor Kulde, however, remained perfectly motionless.

Jake was at a loss. He looked over Kulde's body again, searching for an injury, a weapon, any clue that could explain the situation. "I don't get it. We're in the safest place on Earth, who would come all the way here just to give you a beating?"

"That would be me."

Jake hadn't heard the stranger's approach. The metal rod cracking against his skull, on the other hand, was impossible to miss.

* * *

There was no light, no sound, nothing. Jake was in that reality between wakefulness and oblivion, drifting through a void to nowhere in particular. He wasn't fully aware of who or where he was, or even alarmed by the attack that had brought him to this place. If anything, he felt completely at peace in the quiet emptiness. He was nothing beyond bare existence.

That is, until the air in his lungs turned to acid.

The shock alone made him heave. He coughed and hacked until his chest ached and his stomach turned, but the burning only grew more intense. It felt as though he were choking on bleach, the pain forcing tears from his eyes.

"Easy now," a voice muttered soothingly. "Wake up. We need to talk."

The confusion clouding Jake's mind was ripped away. His wet eyes drifted open, and what blurry sight he had was of his position on the ground of a dark cavern. The only light came from three metal braziers spread along the edge of the cave. They revealed little beyond scattered stones and crumbling walls.

At the moment, all Jake cared about was escaping the acrid air. He fumbled trying to right himself and quickly found the tight chains binding his wrists, ankles, and mouth. All he managed to do was roll to his belly, in turn burying his face further in the coarse dirt.

A figure that he had not noticed in the murk of the cave took a step back from him. It reached away from Jake, corking a small bottle in its hand and hiding it within its sleek black robes. The outfit was all consuming, leaving nothing of the stranger's skin or face uncovered.

Thankfully, the horrid smell vanished with the stranger's bottle. "Don't bother struggling," he said, his voice unnaturally deep and apparently unhindered by his mask. "Those chains are made of a steel and unicorn horn alloy, far stronger than you or any other dragon."

Tension left Jake as he gulped in the fresh, untainted air. Each breath brought him new clarity, along with the rest of his senses. He could feel the welt on the back of his head, hear the breathing of his faceless kidnapper, and it was then that he recalled the last few moments before he'd lost consciousness.

 _Councilor Kulde…_

Jake pushed onto his shoulder and balanced on his side with the help his free tail. The chamber was large, perhaps the size and shape of an observatory, and on the opposite side of the dais Jake found the unconscious blue dragon. As far as he could tell, Councilor Kulde appeared more or less the same as before.

Jake grunted and sat up on his haunches, but was met by a long black rod held by the stranger. He pressed its tip to Jake's neck. "Careful, dragon. Another move and my hand might just...slip."

There was a _click_ , and the shaft of the stranger's weapon split open down the center. The two halves retracted back, exposing a straight sword within that gleamed a bright orange from the reflected light of the braziers. Jake grew still as its fine edge brushed against his collar. As tough as dragon scales were, he wasn't excited to test his natural armor against the keen blade.

"Now, let me be clear," the man said. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. Don't, and you'll pay. Cause trouble, you'll pay. Understood?"

Jake broke his stare with the sword to snarl at the man. A single garbled word was all he managed to grumble between his chained jaws before the man lifted his weapon higher. He leaned closer and hissed, "Do - you - understand?"

The metal edge pressed harder against Jake's scales. Given the lack of any alternative, he gave a cautious nod.

"Good." The man raised his sword and struck. Jake flinched, but the attack he anticipated was instead a kindness as the chains wrapped around his maw were yanked free by the man's sword. He tossed the restraints aside in a clamor and returned his weapon to Jake. "Begin. What is your name?"

It was a simple question, if predictable, but Jake's focus was across the room on Kulde. The councilor's security was Jake's first and only concern, and to guarantee it he would have to find a way out of his bindings. For now, that meant playing along with their captor.

Jake spoke with a deliberate cadence. "My name is the American Dragon."

"Play games, you pay," the man added, leaning further onto his sword. The metal bit into Jake's scales. "Your real name, boy, your _human_ name. Give it."

"Who's asking?" sneered Jake, the man's apparent knowledge feeding his fear. "Why do you care? Why are you even here?"

"I'm asking the questions, remember?" The man flicked the blade beneath Jake's chin and tilted his head toward the ceiling, leaving his neck exposed. "And you'd best start answering them soon, or are you so eager to die alone in some distant cave?"

Whatever reaction the man had hoped to entice, Jake could guess his snickering laughter had not been it. That alone gave him immense satisfaction. "Some distant cave?" he jeered. "Who do you think you're dealing with, yo? This place reeks of ash and it's hot as a sauna. If I didn't know better, I'd say we're still on the Isle of Draco, somewhere in the volcano."

The man's sword fell just slightly in his grasp. "Hm, perhaps you are not so dull as I expected," he said. "Yet that hardly changes our circumstances. You're at my mercy, and I have quite a lot of information to extract. So I ask again: what is your name?"

"Here's the problem with making threats," Jake answered. "They don't work if the other guy knows you're bluffing. Let me show you how it's done." He sat up straighter with the help of his tail and glowered at the man. The sword snapped back to Jake's neck in an instant, but Jake only leaned closer, the blade pressed hard against his scales as he dared the man to strike.

"You're stuck on an island full of magical creatures with no way out, no backup, and one of the most powerful dragons in the world out cold behind you. Someone's gonna find out he's missing in _minutes_ , and it won't take long for the rest of the Dragon Order to come busting in here and take you down. You're outgunned, outnumbered, and you don't stand a chance. So point your little butter knife at me all you want, chump, 'cause the only way you're making it out of this is if you let us go _right now._ "

It wasn't often that Jake would try intimidating a foe that had him chained and at sword point, but his gambit appeared to have paid off. In the seconds that followed his winded retort, the man eased down his weapon and retreated a few steps from him.

"I admit you are, for the most part, correct." The man turned his back to Jake and cantered toward the blue dragon at the other end of the cavern. "I am alone, our accommodations are less than ideal, and I doubt it will be long before more of your kind arrive. There is, however, one correction I'd like to make."

The man stopped beside Councilor Kulde's still body, gripped the nape of his neck, and dragged his head off of the ground. His mask turned back to Jake and his voice echoed throughout the cave. "I am a professional, and I never bluff."

He swiftly thrusted between Kulde's wings. The gleaming sword jutted straight through the councilor's chest.

" _NO!_ " Jake tripped over his chains as he lunged forward and collapsed into the dirt. "You psychopath-" he craned his neck over the ground, "-you _nutcase!_ Are you insane?!"

"Play games, you pay. Remember?" The man wrenched his sword free of Kulde's body and kicked the limp dragon away. "I came for information, not hostages. Now are you going to give me what I want, or do I need to go grab another of your so-called councilors? No, how about that yellow one I saw you with? I'm sure he's around here somewhere-"

Fire boiled within Jake and licked at his throat. The torrent of flaming breath was on the verge of his lips, but the man was at Jake's side in a flash, his sword resting atop Jake's skull. The coup de grace would be delivered before Jake had a chance to blink.

The man chuckled. "Yellow it is."

"Jake Long."

"I'm sorry." The man cupped a hand to where his ear must have been beneath the black mask. "Come again?"

Jake's fire had fizzled to smoke in his mouth. An uncommon rage held him prisoner, stuck on the ground and fixated on Kulde's lifeless body only feet away. The feeling was baffling, something Jake had never imagined in his wildest dreams, and he realized that he was downright terrified.

"My name," he growled, "is _Jake...Long._ "

The man tapped his sword over Jake's head. "See? Not hard at all. And where are you from, Jake?"

Shame welled within him. He wanted to struggle, to throw insults, but what of the other Councilors, or Fred? What choice did he have? "I'm from New York".

"Quite a ways away, aren't you?" the man wondered. "I'm sure you have family there, and friends? It's an interesting commonality amongst your kind, vile as you are." The man bent low to his ear and whispered, "Well I have good news Jake. I'll let you go home. You can see them all again, _if_ you help me first."

The sword lifted away from Jake's head. Jake blinked in bewilderment and followed the man as he stood back and waited. "What do you want?"

The man sighed. "You're from New York, yes? So you must know where the goblin hideouts are, what protections the magical marketplaces have, what parks the pixies and unicorns thrive in." He tapped a gloved finger against his head. "Information is a treasured commodity, and you dragons have plenty of it."

Whatever knowledge the man sought was leverage for Jake. Revealing anything he'd been entrusted with would be treason, of course, but refusing the man's demands wasn't promising either. He needed a third option, but the man was growing impatient. Jake raced to think of some escape and reached one risky possibility.

"You want secrets about my hometown's magical creatures? That's it?" Jake squinted at the man with a look of extreme skepticism. "Say I do it. How do I know you'll keep your end of the deal?"

"I don't bluff." The man turned to point his sword back to Kulde's body, a symbol of his handiwork. "Tell me something worth knowing, and-"

Jake's head snapped up in shock. He shouted over the man's shoulder, "COUNCILORS! STAY BACK!"

The man's reflexes were superb. In a flash he'd whirled around to face his assassins, only to find there were none. The distraction was enough, however, for Jake to bound off of the ground with a beat of his wings and a kick of his feet. He came crashing on top of the man's back and slung his wrists over his covered head, pulling the chains that tied them together taught over his neck. The sword clattered to the ground as they struggled on the spot, the man clawing at the metal links and jabbing his elbow into Jake's stomach while Jake pulled the chain tighter and tighter.

"I don't know where you did your homework," he yelled over the man's strangled breaths, "but I'm no rat, and guess what bud? You hurt my friends, YOU PAY!"

A sharp point dug in between Jake's shoulder blades. A new, powerful voice commanded, "Release him!"

Jake grew still. He slowly turned his head to see a second intruder standing behind him wearing the same black clothing as the first and brandishing a knife of bone. The figure nodded again to his choking accomplice and twisted the knife against Jake's scales.

"Reinforcements?" Jake scoffed before relaxing his arms. "So you did bluff."

The man fell to the ground clutching his throat. It took him some time to catch his breath, after which he took hold of his fallen sword and pushed himself back onto his feet. "And you," he wheezed, "said you wouldn't cause trouble."

"I guess we're both liars."

"Apparently." Fatigued, the man pointed his sword once again at Jake's heart. "I've had enough of your kind for today. Last chance; either help us or die."

Jake bared his teeth, his one last act of defiance. "Do what you want, 'cause I'm never gonna betray my friends."

It was all the finality he could muster in his moment of defeat. He had given it his all, and he'd come up short. Somehow he always thought he'd meet his end with more wit and theatrics. With no hope of escape or rescue, he closed his eyes and awaited the same fate afforded to Councilor Kulde.

He heard the man breathe a great sigh. "Well, I'm satisfied. You?"

The pain between Jake's shoulder blades vanished as the second stranger stowed his knife. "Very much so, as are the others I'm sure."

Jake was, unexpectedly, still alive. He cracked one of his eyes open. "Uh...say what?"

From the deep shadows of one of the cavern's far corners, footsteps echoed out and were soon matched by three new individuals, each adorned in the same garbs as Jake and Kulde's kidnapper. They filed into the chamber and joined the scene, the first in their line nodding along. "I agree; his actions were commendable."

"And very perceptive as well!" the last of the new arrivals added. "Though I think-"

"Alright, everybody just STOP!"

The five black masks all turned to Jake, who was struggling stay upright on his chained feet. He was having even greater difficulty, however, voicing his blustered thoughts. "What is going on here, y'all?! Just who are you people?!"

"Calm yourself, American Dragon," said the man with the sword. After setting his weapon aside, he reached up and dragged away the black coverings around his head, unveiling the familiar and calming face of Councilor Kulde. The other figures in the group each followed suit as he addressed Jake, his voice now returned to normal. "It is us, the Dragon Council. You are safe."

"But...but…" Jake flicked back to where the blue dragon was still curled on its side on the cavern floor. He gestured to the corpse, his mouth working out silent words. "I...I _saw_ you go down! That dude...you?...he stuck you like a pig!"

"Me...ah, of course." The councilor nonchalantly waved a hand at the body, and in seconds it melted away into a stream of vibrant blue vapors. The energy Jake recognized as dragon chi wove its way through the air to be reabsorbed by Councilor Kulde. "No more than a chi doppelganger, a clone, to make the experience more convincing."

"The experience…" Jake's stomach churned and twisted as the reality of his circumstances dawned on him, along with the realization of his complete obliviousness. The shame he'd felt before was multiplied tenfold. "You're joking."

"You see now why the final test is so secretive," explained Councilor Andam, the one who'd held a knife to his back minutes before. His dark face was wrinkled with restrained amusement as he reached out and began unwinding the chains around Jake's wrists. "As entertaining as it can be for us, it also provides a... _unique_ opportunity to examine your true character."

"Oh no. No, no, no, _exams_ are tests. Target practice and sparring matches are tests," Jake argued incredulously, whirling back on Councilor Kulde. "I thought you _died!_ I thought _I_ was gonna die! Wait, _you cracked my dome!_ I could have a concussion, yo!"

Councilor Omina huffed from her place off to the side. "Nonsense. I've knocked out plenty of dragons in my time, American Dragon. Concussing one is harder than you think."

"The final test is stressful and unpleasant by necessity." Councilor Kulde folded his arms and smiled. "And if it's any consolation, you passed. All that is left is the ceremony."

There was a twist of metal, and Councilor Andam freed the chains from Jake's ankles. The skin ached where they had been fastened, but his surprise far outstripped the pain. "I passed? For real? But...but I lost!"

None of the councilors chose to answer. Instead they diverged, walking to separate edges of the room near the three braziers that surrounded them. When they'd found their places, Councilor Kulde clapped his hands once above his head, bringing forth a great trembling like an earthquake that shook the entire cave.

Jake stood at the center of it all, unsure of what to do when a ray of bright light pierced through one of the nearby walls and blinded him. He covered his eyes as the beam grew larger and discovered where all the shaking was coming from. The wall where the light had appeared was vanishing, stone grinding against stone as a large section of it slid slowly into the ground. What was at first a pinprick of light grew as the wall opened until the entire cavern was bathed in glaring sunlight. When the shaking finally ceased, Jake looked through the now sizeable portal and gazed upon a field of grass encircled by mountainous peaks. The arena, complete with ample stands carved into the interior rock faces for observers, was a familiar sight to Jake. He had visited the grounds at the top of Draco Isle's volcano several times before, and he had used the field within the crater for practice and sport alike.

Jake's observations were interrupted, however, as another round of trembling ran through the dirt beneath his feet. Back in the cavern, each of the three braziers had begun to spin in place with an awful grating noise. The development was perplexing for Jake until he watched the braziers begin to rise, spiraling smoothly toward the ceiling as they were carried upward by stone pillars rising from the ground. Jake was intrigued by the sight, less so by the animated columns and more so by the many hundreds of ornaments affixed to their twisting surfaces. Small plates of varying shapes, sizes, and colors covered each pillar like a collage, and after the winding fixtures came to a jarring stop Jake recognized what the ornaments were.

"Am I crazy," he hesitated, "or are those dragon scales?"

"Indeed they are," said Councilor Kulde from his place beside one of the pillars. "You stand in the Sanctum, a sacred place for the Dragon Order known only to dragons who have completed their training and passed the final test."

Councilor Andam strode forward from the kaleidoscopic columns and came to a stop near the center. He addressed Jake, as humorless as the rough stone surrounding them. "Jacob Long. For years you have trained under your grandfather to become the very first American Dragon. It was an unusual arrangement that merited our close observation, and during that time you have had many successes and failures alike. Perhaps more failures than is wise…"

Jake averted the comment. "Well no one's perfect, right?"

Andam cocked an eyebrow. "With all of this in mind, do you know the purpose of the final test?"

Still dazed by his change in surroundings, Jake faltered. "Uh...pass?"

The answer evoked no surprise from Councilor Andam. He calmly asked, "What are the three pillars of the Dragon-"

"Oh! Judgement, courage, wisdom!" The outburst occurred before Jake could stop himself. He clamped his claws over his mouth. "My bad," he said in a much lower tone. "So that's what this was all about? Testing me on the pillars?

Councilor Andam tilted his head side to side. "Yes and no. Your embodiment of the three pillars has been shown time and again in the fulfillment of your duties, that we were certain of before. But there is a fourth pillar of sorts. Though unofficial, it is just as important as the others, if not more so." He then waved his hand through the air, summoning forth another earthy tremble. The grating sound that followed was no surprise, but this time the floor beneath Councilor Andam split open and formed a hole like the opening of a camera shutter. Through the gap, a fourth column rose that was only waist high and carried atop it a punch-bowl sized stone basin.

The dark skinned man reached toward his belt and retrieved the pale, bone-like dagger from earlier. "That pillar is _commitment_. A world dragon must be willing to place the needs of all magical creatures above their own, to never betray their trust or interests no matter the sacrifice. The final test cannot be beaten or escaped, and it is in those moments where defeat is inevitable that every dragon reveals himself." The councilor smiled warmly. "Today that dragon was you, and we liked what we saw."

"Oh…" The combination of praise and understanding behind his apparent manipulation helped assuage Jake's lingering spite. In hindsight, he felt childish for reacting so dramatically. "Well y'all got nothing to worry about. The Am-Drag's all about commitment, know what I'm sayin'?"

"Yes, of course," Councilor Andam groaned with visible restraint. He raised his wicked knife and laid its edge over Jake's chest. "Now listen closely, Dragon Long. The responsibility you are about to inherit is no mere job or hobby, it is a way of life. Once dawned, this mantle cannot be abandoned."

"You were born with your dragon powers, Jake, but no one can force you to use them," Councilor Kulde intoned from the edge of the circle. "If you have any doubts, any reservations about the obligations you face, now is the time to speak them."

With somber stares, each of the councilors watched and waited for Jake's response. The atmosphere had grown grim, as if they were witnessing the delivery of a death sentence, and it sincerely astonished Jake. The councilors may have feared him flawed or insecure, and if they had asked him the same questions a month or two ago their suspicions may have proven true. But now, after overcoming the task he had dreaded for so long, after accomplishing what may have been the greatest achievement of his life thus far, Jake had never felt greater conviction.

He looked back over the knife and nodded to Councilor Andam. "I'm in."

The councilor returned the gesture and placed his other hand on the brim of the stone basin. Jake felt the air around them grow heavier while the flames in the braziers above burned brighter with a golden glow. Councilor Andam recited aloud, "With the Dragon Council as witness, do you, Jacob Luke Long, vow to uphold the pillars and ideals of the Dragon Order, now and until the end of days?"

"I vow."

"Do you vow to defend, protect, and bring peace to all magical creatures to the best of your ability?"

Jake nodded. "I vow!"

The brazier flames roared and licked at the cave ceiling. Their light flickered in Councilor Andam's dark eyes. "And as a world dragon, do you vow to give yourself, mind, body, and soul, to the fulfillment of your duties?"

" _I vow!_ "

"Then so be it!"

Councilor Andam's knife of bone stabbed into Jake's chest and ripped back out, tearing with it a large, thick, yellow scale.

"AAAAHH!" Jake flinched at the ripping pain and clutched at the golf ball sized patch of exposed skin over his heart. The scale itself had flicked out and landed in the basin, and as bad as it stung the injury produced nothing more than few droplets of blood. Jake winced at the tender spot. "Dude! Would you people quit beating the hell out of me?!"

"It is official." As the Sanctum's air thinned and the braziers dimmed once again, Councilor Andam reached into the basin and retrieved the spearhead shaped scale. "Congratulations."

The other councilors broke from their formation to join them near the basin, each with a merry expression. Passing whatever inspection the councilor had performed, Councilor Andam took Jake's scale to a nearby column and affixed it to its surface to glisten alongside the other numerous scales.

"Congratulations?" Jake said. "As in, we're done? So that means-"

"-you are now a world dragon," Councilor Kulde acknowledged. "Welcome to the Order, American Dragon."

* * *

It hadn't even been a day since the last time Jake had flown through the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Yet as he flew in the darkness of the early night, he couldn't help but feel like something were amiss with the skyline. The buildings hadn't moved, the streets were still bustling, and the air still stunk of smog and stagnant seawater. All was perfectly normal, completely unchanged from how he'd left the city only hours ago, and still he felt like a stranger in a foreign land.

The only thing that had changed, of course, was Jake. Not in the physical sense of course, though his pounding head and still stinging chest begged to differ, but somewhere deep inside him. His purpose in the world and the way he viewed himself had been irrevocably changed, for better or worse. His initiation into the Dragon Order had been life altering, but now that the adrenaline fueled fervor had begun to subside he was left with a strange vacancy in his mind. The sensation wasn't bad, necessarily, but he wasn't sure to make of it. He'd set out to become a world dragon and after agonizing weeks of stress and anxiety he'd done just that. The only question left was what to do now?

Minutes of brisk flight from Grand Central to his Upper West Side brownstone, however, was not enough for Jake to reach a conclusion. His body ached, his mind was slow, and the sight of his front door was as welcome a sight as any after the day he'd just experienced. Transforming back into his human form before even landing, he dropped to his concrete stoop and eagerly entered the comfort of his home.

Jake shut the door behind him and blinked in the pitch black darkness. He hadn't bothered to check a clock since arriving in New York, though the hour must have been much later than he'd thought. With his family asleep, he resolved to quietly grab leftovers from the fridge before passing out in his bed for the next day or two.

The living room lit up with a flick of the hallway switch, and Jake nearly had a heart attack.

"SURPRIIISE!"

" _AH!_ "

There was an explosion of fire and Jake was returned to his dragon body, his stance wide and his fists raised and at the ready. It was about then, when his martial arts training was flying through his head, that he got a good look at his chipper assailants. "Guys! It's just you…"

Standing up from their hiding spots behind the couches and lazy chairs were Trixie, Spud, Fu Dog, Lao Shi, and Jake's younger sister Haley. His parents peeked around the corner from the kitchen, his mother Susan smiling with a camera in her hands while his father Jonathan, who was still dressed in his office attire for some reason, looked on with visible concern. The room around them was decorated with balloons and streamers while a large red banner hang across the stair bannister with Jake's name plastered across it in green paint.

His father spoke up first. "Now Jake, not to be a _Debbie downer_ , but-"

"No dragons in the house!" Jake transformed again in a flash of fire and ran a hand through his human hair. "My bad, pops. Y'all got me good, but that's it, right? 'Cause I don't think I can take any more surprises today."

Jonathan, a normal, Midwestern human who had only learned about the magical nature of his wife's half of the family four years ago, was still a bit timid around their more reptilian forms. But all things considered, he'd proven resilient to the cataclysmic discovery. Even now he quickly regained his jovial demeanor. "Well you should know, Jakers! If there's one thing the Longs are good at, it's surprises!"

There was a bright flash from Susan's camera that threw spots over Jake's vision. "Well, tell us all about it!" she urged, beckoning him closer in his delirium. "How did it go? Did you, you know…"

"Pass?" Jake clapped his hands behind his head and smirked. "With flying colors, moms. You're looking at the official American Dragon, one hundred percent certified and street legal."

"Haha! That's what's _up!_ " Trixie bounded around her couch and threw an arm over Jake's shoulders. "What did I say? I knew you had it in you, playa!"

Spud appeared on his other side. "Seriously, bro, crazy righteous! You're, like, totally king of the city now!"

Susan had fallen into snapping endless pictures between shouts of excitement while Lao Shi approached the three teens. He tapped his finger against Jake's chest, directly where he could still feel the phantom pain from his missing scale. "As I told you young one, everything you needed was right there."

Jake freed his arms from Trixie and Spud to rub the spot. "G, you've really gotta let me know when you're being that literal." He looked again at the copious decorations. "Man, you guys must have been pretty confident in me pulling through if you went through all this trouble."

"The occasion would have been a celebration regardless," his grandfather answered. "Whether you kept or refused your powers, we all would have been very proud of all that you have accomplished to get here."

Fu spat dismissively and walked over on his hind legs. "Come on Gramps, Jake givin' up the dragon business? No way. I never doubted you for a second kid." He leaned closer to Jake and whispered behind his paw, "But FYI, I may have also slipped Councilor Andam some brownies for an early heads up. You know, just in case."

"That's touching, Fu."

"I had you at fifty-fifty odds." The shar pei stepped aside as Haley butted her way into the group, teasing in her singsong tone. Five years Jake's junior and already almost as tall, the girl was his superior in academics, talent, and etiquette, and typically spared no opportunity to remind him of it. Her current dubious expression was a clear sign that one of those moments was close at hand. "By the way, I saw you on the news tonight!" She whipped a remote out from behind her back. "Here, let me show everyone."

Panic sparked in Jake. "Hales, wait-!"

The TV powered on. Jake tried to steal away the control as the screen flashed to life, but his sister twirled away from him, her fingers playing with the buttons. "It's here somewhere," she giggled, jumping forward and back through the video while evading Jake. "Almost...there we go!"

Everyone turned to see the news anchor sitting behind a sleek desk, her powdered face emotionless as a video played over her shoulder. " _There is still no word from either the mayor's office or the New York Police Department on exactly what happened at the Manhattan Bridge only hours ago. Let's take another look._ "

Jake pinched his eyes. "Please don't."

The recording paid him no mind as the video in the corner blew up to fill the screen. The trembling footage panned slowly past the bridge from a decent height, presumably from a helicopter. In the center of the bridge near the stopped traffic was a plume of smoke with several ambulances and police cars surrounding it.

" _While responding to a motor accident on the bridge this afternoon, Officer Collins, a senior member of the NYPD, stopped for a cigarette along the guard rails and accidentally fell when an unexpected gale blew him over the edge."_

On cue, a tiny dark blue speck tipped over the side of the bridge. Instead of plummeting to a burial at sea, however, a blurry red and green figure appeared from beneath the bridge, dove down to catch the man, and shot back up into the shadows of the causeway.

The recording was shaky and out of focus, but that didn't stop Lao Shi from hissing with rage. " _Jake!_ What were you thinking!" He muttered something angrily in Cantonese. "The middle of the day, out in the open-"

"Give me a break, G," Jake groaned. "It's not like I planned it, and the dude was on a one-way trip to the morgue!"

The video shrunk on the screen to show the newswoman shuffling her papers. " _Officer Collins was found soon after the incident in a service hatch on Houston and 2nd Street with no serious injuries or memory of the event. Though witnesses remain baffled, it would seem that New York City may have its own guardian angel._ "

Jake finally snatched the remote away from Haley and paused the video. "See? Fu and I took care of the guy after and everyone's still clueless. Seems like a win-win to me."

Any other day, the verbal punishment from his grandfather would have been extensive. Right now, however, he miraculously seemed placated. "Fine," the old man shrugged. "But you get to send the report to the Council, _American Dragon_. Now, daughter, I was promised there would be some celebratory dessert?"

"The cake! I almost forgot!" Susan shoved her camera into Jonathan's fumbling hands and dashed into the kitchen. "Come on in everyone! I'll get the plates!"

A flash of disappointment crossed Haley at the sudden de-escalation, but no one else showed any unease as they filed into the kitchen. Jake himself was content not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Breathing a sigh of relief, he found the first available chair at the dinner table and dropped into it. The others followed suit while his parents set the table.

Spud had taken to casually examining his toes. "So what's your first act as the certified American Dragon gonna be? Cracking down on black markets? Catching poachers in Central Park?"

"The only thing I'm catching are some Z's." Jake fought back a yawn and cleared away a pile of newspapers from the table. Something slipped between his fingers and fell to the ground, and he bent over to find that it was a letter. What intrigued him, however, was his name written over its front. "Hey moms, what's up with this?"

Susan stopped with an armful of dishware. She looked uncomfortable as Jake brandished the letter for her to see. "That? It just came in the mail today, but I saw who it was from and thought that it could...well...wait until tomorrow."

Curious, Jake looked at the letter again and immediately laughed. The lavish emblem stamped over the return address explained everything. "Hey guys," he chortled, waving the envelope at Trixie and Spud. "Guess who finally got back to me? Only took 'em a couple extra months to think of a way to say 'not in a million years'."

Trixie squinted at the letter and promptly rolled her eyes. "Just like UCLA...here Spud, it's your turn. I read the last two."

"No problemo." Spud set his plate aside and took the envelope. Jake watched the boy tear it open and peruse its contents, taking the time to satisfy his gnawing hunger. The first rejections he'd received from higher institutions had stung a little, but over the months he'd since turned reading them into a humorous activity. It wasn't all that difficult when the notices were so awkwardly phrased to avoid any negativity.

"Alrighty, let's see here…" Spud scanned the document studiously, nodding along as though engaging the paper in deep discussion.

"Really, Jake," Susan pried. "Remember we're celebrating! Don't let it ruin the mood."

"Relax, moms. It's not like it matters now anyways. We might as well have fun with it, right?" Jake nodded to Spud. "How's it lookin' Spudster?"

A peculiar look of frustration had come over Spud. "Well, I don't know," he admitted, scratching his head and reading the paper over and over again. "I mean to be honest, it's probably the worst rejection letter I've ever read."

"Boy, give it here." Trixie snatched the paper away and began to read it herself. The first time she passed over it, it was with an almost perfect duplication of Spud's odd annoyance. As she reread it, however, her eyes began to bulge and her mouth sagged open.

Spud gesticulated angrily to the letter. "I know, right?! It's like they've never heard of a rejection or something!"

Her lips were quivering, but Trixie made no intelligible sounds. Instead she jumped to her feet and shoved the letter into Susan's confused hands. "Read, read!" she ordered, jabbing a finger at the letter. "I'm not crazy, _tell_ me I'm not crazy."

Legitimate concern was brewing within Jake. "Hold up, what does it say?"

The bewilderment was contagious. Susan hadn't had the letter for more than a minute before she too broke into shock and put a hand over her mouth. Jonathan followed soon after, his glasses sliding down and over the edge of his nose as he read the paper over his wife's shoulder.

"Yo, someone say something," Jake said. "What's the big deal, we've gotten tons of these things-"

" _Jake!_ " Susan's squeak was muffled by her hand. She hurried around the table and handed the letter to him. " _Read it!_ "

"Yeah, what's it say kid?" Fu asked. "I'm dying over here, tell me!"

Jake shoved his plate over and flattened out the now wrinkled letter on the table. The paper, heading, and font were all perfectly ordinary, and he started from the top. "Dear Mr. Jake Long, after much careful review and consideration of our many excellent applicants, we are _pleased_ …"

The word brought Jake to a halt. It was a word that had not appeared in any of his one-way correspondence thus far, without exception. His mother shook his shoulder, almost beside herself. "Keep going!"

He continued, "...pleased to inform you of your acceptance to the University of California, Los Angeles."

Susan jabbed at the paper again, this time closer to the bottom of the page. "Here, this too!"

Jake obeyed numbly. "We are also pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive the MCI Foundation award, which will cover all of your tuition and on campus living expenses contingent upon the maintenance of adequate academic progress."

The silence that filled the room was absolute. Everyone had become a statue, frozen in time and fixed on Jake with looks of awe and stupefaction. For no one was this truer than Haley, who looked as though she had just been thrown from the Manhattan Bridge herself. "You got in?" she said incredulously. " _You?_ With a _full-ride?_ "

It occurred to Jake that perhaps he was in fact concussed, because he suddenly found himself incapable of speech. All he could do was stare at the faces of Trixie and Spud, unable to voice the simplest of thoughts.

It hardly mattered, however. It was obvious that they were all thinking the same thing.

" _Holy shit._ "

 **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=O**


	3. The City of Angels

**V**

 **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=O**

 **Chapter Three: The City of Angels**

 **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=O**

 **Two Months Later…**

Canal Street Electronics was, to most, exactly as advertised: a small electronics sales and repair shop set in Manhattan's Chinatown. It boasted neither size nor splendor and housed only a compact display room piled high with obsolete appliances. The prices were shady, the atmosphere stale, and the service, frankly, discouraging.

All of this was of course fine by Lao Shi, who had owned and operated the establishment for decades as a front for his more magical activities. While the plain displays in the front averted naive eyes, a step through the curtain that led to the back of the shop revealed another sight entirely. The shelves lining this secluded room were laden with jars and vials of every description, some glowing unnatural colors, others housing preserved creatures and grotesque organs. Thick tomes were stacked haphazardly with gleaming inscriptions on their spines. Artifacts littered every surface, scrolls were piled here and there, and nearly any ingredient imaginable could be found in the mystifying place.

On an average day it would be generous to describe the room as 'cluttered', but recently it had become outright claustrophobic. Primarily, the walkway usually left vacant in the center of the backroom was blocked by a mound of luggage. Suitcases, duffel bags, boxes, pillows, rucksacks, and a single bean bag chair were shoved together where Jake, Trixie, and Spud had left them the night before. Packing for their trip across the country had been hanging over Jake's mind for some time, but the chore had finally come and gone with depressing ease. Of all the accumulated possessions, he had the fewest.

Standing in the room now, however, Jake's attention was focused on the curved glass screen of an old antennae TV. Static covered the program's newscaster in a film of snow, but her studio was still visible and the audio came through marginally intact.

" _And finally, witnesses have reported two new sightings of a red flying object over the weekend."_ She tilted her head to her shoulder, over which appeared two grainy pictures. Each showed a smeared red blur against a nighttime cityscape, out of focus and indistinct despite the grainy signal. " _These reports of the so-called 'Manhattan Angel' come following its first appearance two months ago, bringing the total number of sightings of the soaring mystery to eleven. The NYPD's chief commissioner continues to deny having any knowledge of the UFO at this time, stating that-_ "

The fuzzy picture blinked away into darkness. Jake set down the remote. "So, what do you think?"

Beside him in the dim backroom stood a tall, thin woman with tan skin and sleek black hair hanging to her shoulders. She was Sun Park, known both as the Korean Dragon and, for the past several years, as Haley's dragon master. As far as teachers went, Sun was about as polar opposite as one could get from Lao Shi, but it was hardly a blemish on her character. Jake doubted he had, or ever would, meet someone as kind, gentle, and nurturing as her. His only grievance was the benefit her demeanor paid his sister. Sun's placid training regimens had never come to match Lao Shi's brutal intensity.

"The Manhattan Angel…" Sun had her arms folded, tapping a finger with a look of discomfort. "I'm not sure what to think. We can all agree, though, that this level of exposure is concerning. The photos we've seen have all been of you, though it could be because you're the only one they're looking for. You've been following the stricter flight protocols, correct?"

"Twenty-four, seven, just like the rest of y'all. No flying at day, only using abandoned sub tunnels, no visibility near skyscrapers." Jake's eyes drifted to a nearby desk, where a stack of reports to the Dragon Council were newly filled out and waiting to be sent. "I don't know what else to do, Sun. The number of requests from magical creatures just keeps going up. If we cut down on using our dragon powers any more, there's no way we'll be able to keep up!"

Sun nodded. "Haley has told me the same. It seems a day doesn't go by without someone recording footage of a stray gryphon or goblin, and we've never had this many relocation assignments before. To tell you the truth, I blame technology. Ten years ago the press and photographers were the only real problems. Now every child, street vendor, and janitor has a camera in their phone."

"Well this meeting might help if we're lucky," said Jake. "Or it could just make everything worse."

"Is that so? Now I _am_ excited." Sun turned and looked at the piled luggage, a somber smile pulling at her lips. "How time flies. It's hard to believe that you'll soon be on your own. How were your parents this morning?"

Jake half-laughed. "The folks? Mom just seemed excited; she still can't believe I'm going off to college. Pops was way worse. He kept dropping lines like ' _Our little man's all grown up_ ' and ' _You'll have a blast, Draggy-Jake_ '." He groaned for the second time that morning at the moniker. "At least the goodbyes are done. It just feels weird, y'know? I mean, it's not like anything's gonna change around here."

Sun cocked her head. "Oh no?"

Jake shrugged. "The folks still have Haley, so no empty nest there. And between her and you, the magical creatures here will have plenty of coverage." The luggage again drew his attention. "It'll be like I never left."

A hand fell on his shoulder. He turned to see Sun smiling brightly at him. "I wouldn't be so sure."

They both shifted as a bell jingled from the front of the store. A door creaked opened beyond the curtain and a loud, nasally voice came within earshot. "-so the _third_ ogre went down crying like a baby, and that's when a big ugly crocolisk jumped in out of nowhere-"

Haley blew through the curtains and glared at Jake. "Next time, _you_ get to pick him up from Grand Central."

"-so I took him on, gave him the beating his life, and - Jake!" A lanky boy brushed through the curtain next, a cocky smirk exposing his buck teeth. "Long time no see. I was just telling Haley here about how I saved a village of marsh sprites the other day."

Gregory Long was Jake's malcontent cousin with clear similarities in the shape of his eyes and the spike of his black hair. Despite the resemblance Jake felt no comradery with the boy, who was quite possibly the single most irritating person, magical or otherwise, that Jake had the displeasure of knowing. His behavior was only worsened by the fact that he was a year younger than Jake, a nuance that routinely escaped the gangly teen.

It took some effort for Jake to restrain himself. "What's up, Greg? How was the-"

"So like I was saying," Gregory rambled, "I put some serious hurt on this crocolisk and their whole gang took off. The sprites were all crazy thankful, they totally treated me like their hero." He tilted his chin a little higher and sighed contentedly. "You probably don't get that a lot, but it's a pretty good feeling."

Jake's chi fluttered dangerously in his chest. "Keep pushing your luck, _Greggy_ , and-"

A snow-white and incredibly muscular arm shot through the curtain to clamp onto Gregory's shoulder. He immediately flinched in pain and buckled at the knees, whining, " _Ow ow ow ow ow! Let go, Nat! Uncle! Uncle!_ "

"You talk too much, Gregory, and I am not your uncle," answered a powerful voice in a thick Slavic accent. A behemoth of a woman stepped through the curtain with the presence of a grizzled general. She watched her student twitch in her grasp with slate-like indifference. "I have taught you better than this. You address _all_ of your superiors with respect."

Of all of the possible instructors that could have been assigned to Gregory, Natalya Medveda, one in a long line of Russian Dragons, was the most strict, punishing, and rigorous master in all of the Dragon Order. Her imposing stature alone inspired dread in the most steadfast of men, and there was nothing Jake enjoyed more than watching his cousin squirm under her tutelage. The experience was equally entertaining and humbling.

" _Okay, okay! I'm sorry!_ " squeaked Gregory, now fully on his knees.

"And word of advice: speak soft, carry big stick. There were only two ogres, and it was _I_ who ' _put down the hurt_ '." Natalya relaxed her vice grip and yanked her student back up to his feet with a single hand. She gave a curt nod to Jake. "Good to see you looking well, American Dragon."

"Same here," said Jake, fighting to hide his amusement. "Thanks for coming. I know it isn't easy making it all the way out here for these meetups, but this one's important. We'll try to make it quick once Gramps and Fu-"

The door leading to the back alley of the shop flung open. As if answering their summons, Lao Shi walked in and bowed to the other masters while Fu entered on his heels. The Shar Pei carried with him a large roll of thick, aged paper. "Someone talkin' about me?" he said. "Better be good things, 'cause I ain't done nothin' bad in at least three...maybe four days."

Jake took the rolled paper from Fu, teasing, "Last to show up, like always." He nodded between Lao Shi, Sun, and Natalya. "You guys want a sec' to catch up?"

"It is alright, American Dragon," said Natalya, still expressionless as stone. "You must leave soon, no? We also have plans to keep, hag bogs to unclog and such. Isn't that right, Gregory?"

Disgust flashed across Gregory's face, but he grit his teeth and made no complaint. Given the silence from the others present, Jake saw no reason to wait. "Alright then."

He grabbed one end of the poster and flicked it out horizontally. The thick paper rolled out like a blanket and hung in the air, perfectly flat and floating at waist height off of the floor. Everyone moved to stand along its edges, gazing down curiously at what was clearly a map of the continental United States.

Jake savored one last, deep breath and began. "Thanks again for coming everyone. We've got a lot to talk about and there's a pretty big situation that we need to deal with, so let's get started."

He pointed at the map, toward the states clumped together at its north-east corner. "First off, and I know this is old news, but Gramps here has been the only full-time dragon in the US for...well...a long time. He's been taking care of most of the magical creatures in the New England area by himself, but the rest of the country has pretty much been on its own. Now, Hales and me have been helping cover more turf on the East coast over the past few years, and you guys," he glanced at Gregory and Natalya before tracing his finger along the Southern coastline, "have been working along the Gulf too."

"Isn't that a good thing?" said Gregory. "We're helping out more magical creatures than ever. What's the problem with that?"

"The problem is...uh, hang on…" Jake flitted over the map's surface, tapping here and there uncertainly. "Uh, Fu Dog? How do you get it to do the thing-?"

"Here, kid, it's Oklahoma. And don't ask me why, I didn't make the thing." Fu stood on his toes to scratch the pan-shaped state. Red spots began appearing along the surface of the map, the majority bubbling in clumps around labels for major cities.

"Thanks, Fu." Jake pointed around the map, jabbing at each of the congregations of dots spread throughout the nation. "Check it. Each of these is an entire community of magical creatures, and these are just the ones we know about. Even with what we're doing now, something like two-thirds of the country is hanging out to dry. Normally they're fine on their own, but we've been getting word of more and more magical creatures having run-ins with humans in all of these communities. We've gotta step up our game and be ready to help any of these magical creatures before it's too late."

Haley griped, "Sorry, Jake. I get what you're saying but that's way too much ground to cover from here. I just don't see it happening."

It was a doubt Jake had expected. For once he welcomed his sister's antagonism, because this time he had an answer at the ready. "Natalya?" he asked, looking to the stern, platinum blonde woman. "How big is Russia?"

She pondered the question a moment, never betraying any surprise. "Area, I am not sure. But we do have eleven time zones if that helps."

"So bottom line, it's big," said Jake. "How much of it is covered by world dragons?"

"About ninety percent," she stated, a hint of pride bleeding into her voice. "All but the most remote areas have protection."

"And how many dragons does that take?"

The corner of her lips pulled up in a rare smirk. "Six as of now, though we have made due with fewer."

"Six, huh?" Jake reached out and traced his finger along the map, following the range of the Appalachian Mountains to the east. A faint blue line appeared in his wake, marking where he'd touched the paper. He did the same farther to the left along the range of the Rocky Mountains, going from the top to the bottom of the map, and lastly drew a horizontal line between the first two, dividing the vast middle section of the country into northern and southern halves.

Jake looked up from the rough blue 'H'. "I say we do it with four."

Each member of his audience observed the map questioningly. Sun, squinting with apparent understanding, was the first to speak. "You're serious about this?"

"As serious as it gets," said Jake. "We're out of time. We've gotta do something to take care of all of these magical creatures. Gramps, Fu, and me have been ironing this whole thing out since I decided to move to Cali'. I'll take care of the west coast while I'm at UCLA, and you and Hales already have the east. Greggy and Natalya will-"

"-what, take all of _this_?" scoffed Gregory. He waved his hands at the swath of land, incredulous. "I've never even been to most of these places! No way am I babysitting all those magical creatures. I didn't sign up for this!"

Natalya's brow furrowed. " _Gregory_ -"

Jake held his hand up. "I've got this Natalya."

The Russian held back whatever scolding she'd prepared. She instead nodded in recognition and stepped back from her student, impassive.

Gregory didn't budge from his look of brazen defiance. "Well good, 'cause this is totally unfair! I'm not gonna-"

"Yes, you are," said Jake, speaking up to the boy a head taller than he with flat authority. He gestured back to the map. "Your areas are the least populated. You've got your dragon master to help you, plus your younger siblings whenever they start getting their powers. My territory is just as big as yours, and I'm flying solo."

"But I've got school and-!"

"So do I," Haley criticized. "Do you hear me whining?"

A year ago Jake would have taken his cousin out to the alley and continued the argument there, but now he really was the American Dragon. He was expected to be professional and diplomatic, particularly when it was difficult. "We've all got stuff going on, Gregory," he sighed with restraint, "and I know this change is gonna be tough, but that's part of the gig. Like it or not I'm in charge now. I call the shots and this is how we're doing things. So are you in or what?"

Gregory looked back to his dragon master, though she gave him no refuge. After glancing at the rest of their group and having none of them rebuff his distress, he grunted in defeat. " _Fine_ …"

Jake grinned. "Come on, Greg. Remember what you dragon master said about respect?"

He felt a swell of satisfaction as Gregory's cheeks flushed beet red. The burning teen fumed, "Yes, _sir_."

"Good," said Jake. "Then it's settled."

"A question," interrupted Sun, pointing to the center north region of the map. "Which of us will be responsible for the Midwest, near the Great Lakes?"

Jake's pulse quickened. He looked to Lao Shi, who had yet to speak from his corner of the group. His grandfather appeared determined not to break his silence, however, so Jake reluctantly cleared his throat. "Gramps will. We've been keeping it under wraps until now, but…Lao Shi's agreed to move the shop to Chicago with Fu Dog in a week. They'll watch over the Midwest from there."

"What? That's ridiculous," chuckled Haley. "Gramps wouldn't leave New York in a hundred years, isn't that right gramps?"

"It is decided, granddaughter," Lao Shi said simply. "I must go where I am needed, and I have complete confidence in you and Sun."

Her smile slowly slipped away. "But...you can't leave! New York needs you, _we_ need you!"

Sun held her shoulder in comfort, but Haley only glared at her master. Her face twisted further in rage at Sun's lack of reaction, and finally she settled for scowling at the corner of the room. Jake didn't even blame his sister. It felt like he'd banished his own dragon master, driven him away from the home he'd built through his work and dedication alone. The thought of it still left a bitter taste in his mouth, but as his grandfather had said, it had been decided.

Jake moved on. "We've already started getting in contact with these communities and their local DMC's to get everyone coordinated. I want each of us to hook up with our territory's magical creatures and get them all up to date before our next meeting. And remember, all official reports have to go through me from now on before they get sent to the Council. Sound good?"

Their group remained silent. There hadn't been an all-out mutiny, which was one outcome he had feared, but their sullen looks weren't comforting. Jake could have cut the tension with a claw.

Across from him, Natalya tapped the enchanted map and said warily, "Your plan is...ambitious."

Her doubt pulled Jake's spirits even lower. He searched for some placating words, but none came. "You're right, Natalya. It's a lot to ask," he admitted. "Maybe too much...but with the way things have been going-"

"You misunderstand," she said. Her eyes snapped back to Jake, burning with a fiery intensity. "Ambition is good. The challenge will make for excellent training." Natalya straightened to her full height and bowed. "Count on us, American Dragon."

"And Haley and I as well," Sun added with her own bow. "Leave the east coast to us."

Jake nodded slowly. "Alright...I'll take it. Any questions?" There was no reaction. "Then we're all good. Dismissed or...y'know, peace."

Gregory turned away with a huff and swept out through the curtain. Natalya tilted her head again to Jake before following after her student. Bells jingled as they left through the storefront entrance.

Fu grunted to the side and rubbed the folds of his neck. "Yeesh, doesn't look like he's changed one bit. So much for respect."

"Because kicking out your dragon master is so much better?" sneered Haley. "This is pond-scum level of low, Jake!"

Sun put her hand over Haley's back, but the girl shrugged her off. "You heard your brother, Haley. No one's kicking out Lao Shi. Think of all the good this will bring, all of the magical creatures we can-"

"They were doing fine without us! Who cares about them?" asserted Haley. She turned to the curtain and stepped through, scorning as she went, "Do us all a favor and just leave already, before you ruin anything else."

" _Haley_ -" Sun's black hair swung as she chased after her student, their departure announced with more cheerful chiming of bells.

A moment of silence engulfed the room. Jake stared past the curtain, fixated on the sting of his sister's words. His ego fought to discredit them, dragging the purpose of their plan and its necessity to the front of his mind, but he knew they were deserved all the same.

Fu reached out and tapped the map twice over Idaho. The lines and dots disappeared from its surface and the paper slid back into a tight roll. "Don't worry kid," he sighed as he gathered the map and added it to the pile of luggage. "Greggy's just being a crybaby and Haley didn't mean what she said. They'll come around, you'll see."

"Yeah...sure." Jake turned to Lao Shi, dragging his fingers through his hair. "Could've gone worse, I guess. They would've kept cool if you'd been the one giving the bad news, though. I just don't have what you have, Gramps. The way people always listen to everything you say, no complaints..."

His grandfather shook his head. "It wasn't my place. You are the American Dragon, Jake. You must learn to lead the dragons in your territory, and the only way you learn is through practice."

Jake leaned against a bookshelf, a mock smile on his face. "I'm a world dragon heading out on my own and you're still schooling me like my dragon master."

" _Like_ your dragon master?" Lao Shi spat off to the side. "The day may come when you sit on the Dragon Council, and I will _still_ be your dragon master!"

Bells jingled as the storefront door once again opened out of sight. "Jaaake! Fu Dog, Gramps! You guys home?"

Fu Dog cupped a paw to his muzzle. "Back room, kids! Did you bring the mover like I asked?"

Spud's beanie-adorned head poked through the curtain. "Okay, so we weren't _exactly_ sure what you meant by 'mover', but we went to that address you gave us anyway. I thought it was gonna be something cool like a bottomless suitcase or some kind of portal gem, maybe even an awesome magic carpet, you know, with _jets_ …"

Fu covered his eyes and groaned, "Tell me you didn't come back empty-handed?"

"Oh we brought the _mover_ alright," Trixie called from beyond the partition. She sent Spud tumbling into their room and stepped over him, dragging a third individual in with her. "But homeboy here was the one who found _us_. Next time, tell us when _it_ is a _he_."

Grinning beneath a head of waving red locks, Trixie's companion freed himself of her grip and stepped further into their room. He tossed back the dark violet cloak draped over his shoulders, revealing the satin slacks and jacket below. Small bulges in his clothing hinted at concealed possessions, one of which, as he removed it from his pants pocket, turned out to be a slender black wand.

"Good morning, all," he announced with a flourish and bow. "Nigel Thrall, at your service."

The sight smacked Jake out of his morose thoughts. " _Nigel?_ What the heck are you doin' here?"

The boy, a peer of Jake's whom he'd first met in eighth grade, straightened back up to his full height. He nodded to the awaiting pile of luggage with a smirk. "Well now I thought that was obvious, even for you."

"Thrall's here to take us to Cali', kid," explained Fu. "Teleportation's the best way to go when we've got this much junk to haul, and there's no one better in the business than _Sorcery Services_."

"Recipient of Magic Weekly's _Most Enchanting Service_ award three decades in a row," lauded Nigel.

"No kidding?" Jake snickered. "Here I thought you went off to be some big shot sorcerer after graduation. I mean, I guess _customer service_ is cool too."

Nigel folded his arms. "Yes, well, the sorcery industry isn't exactly _booming_ at the moment. My instructor helped me find work, but the arrangements are only temporary, of course." A pointed look came over him. "Being stuck with the same career for the rest of my life, though? I can't even _imagine_ what that must be like."

Fu Dog interjected over Jake's dark glare, "Alright, down you two. Let's save some of that spunk for the moving, huh? Or at least until Thrall isn't on the clock."

"Agreed," said Nigel. "Let's not dilly dally. No good for business, after all." He approached the mound of luggage and circled around it, appreciating the belongings with a calculating look. After his third round, he came to a stop and withdrew a wound ball of twine. "I will be ready in a few moments. Be careful not to forget anything important, return trips cost extra."

"Oh no." Still seated on the ground, Spud tugged at the edges of his beanie in sudden panic. "What if I _did_ forget something important? But I can't remember what I forgot!" He gripped at the hems of Trixie's cargo pants. "Quick, Trix! Remind me what I forgot to remember!"

Jake watched Trixie smack Spud's hand away and yank him to his feet. It was then that he felt a hand on his elbow and looked down to see Lao Shi watching him. "Yeah Gramps? What's up?"

"A quick word, before you go," his grandfather answered. The old man pulled Jake further aside before reaching into the folds of his blue robes. "One more lesson, you could say." He chuckled at the roll of Jake's eyes. "Yes, grandson. Becoming a world dragon and moving across the country does not mean you are finished learning."

"So what is it today? Sun Tzu? Confucius? A fortune cookie?"

A sad smile touched Lao Shi's face as he reached out toward Jake's awaiting hands. "A gift," he said, dropping a small metal disk in his palm. "Think of it as both a blessing and a warning."

Jake opened his hand and examined the object. It was a silver medallion, about the size of a half-dollar with a smooth loop of leather worked through it. An image was carved into the face of the medal, depicting two teardrop shapes winding around one another. One was smooth and flat, the other etched and rough.

"Yin and yang?" he guessed, running his thumb over the medallion. "From Taoism, right? Like darkness and light, good and bad."

"Positivity and negativity, action and inaction," Lao Shi countered. "So often named after opposites, as if mortal enemies. Yet does light not create darkness? Can there be joy without sorrow?"

"You're starting to lose me, Gramps."

Lao Shi chuckled and slipped the leather loop over Jake's head. "Conflict is everywhere, young dragon. In the world, in our enemies, in ourselves." He tapped the medallion now resting over Jake's chest. "From one world dragon to another, trust me when I say you will soon face more conflict than you ever imagined. There will be moments when you are faced with impossible decisions, when you feel overwhelmed beyond ability. In those moments, remember this."

He flipped the medallion over, the other side showing a whole circle of polished, mirror-like silver. "He who sits at his foe's table holds no fears."

"We are ready to depart!" Nigel announced. "Quickly now, no time to waste!"

Jake hurriedly tucked the medallion beneath his jacket. "Thanks, G, for everything. Wait and see, I'll be so fearless it'll blow you away." He paused a step away from his grandfather. "And let me know if Chicago's not working out, okay? Just say the word and we'll have you back here pronto."

Lao Shi waved off his concern. "What dangers does Chicago have that New York does not? Grandpa can handle their theater, pizza, and…" he shuddered, "... _jazz music_."

Trixie gripped Spud by the arm where they stood beside Nigel. Jake joined them, observing the twine that Nigel had webbed over their luggage. The ends of the strand led back to him, each wrapping around one of his thumbs. "So what's with all the rope, Thrall?"

" _Rope_ , he calls it," bemoaned Nigel. "This _rope_ is a powerful amplifying thread, Long, made from a sophisticated blend of golden fleece and nymph hair. This will magnify the power and range my magic while channeling it-"

"-like a multiple-resonant Tesla transformer!" Spud marveled at the glittering twine. "No resistance, incredible tensile strength...it's a perfect superconductor, every electrical engineer's dream!"

Nigel blinked a few times. "Terribly sorry, but...what?"

"Just ignore him," said Trixie. "Let's get this show on the road already."

"Right…" Nigel shrugged and returned to the luggage. "Long story short: everyone take hold of a portion of strand. Just a finger's worth will do."

They each reached toward the pile and grabbed a link of free twine, Spud doing so with religious care. Jake lassoed his index finger with the twine, ignoring the sudden chills their near departure sent dancing over his skin.

"Everyone ready?" Nigel asked as he raised his wand. "No objections? Then here we go!"

A green glow lit the tip of his wand, instantly followed by an electric sensation that shot through Jake's finger. The fibers squeezed against his skin and snapped taut over the luggage as Nigel flicked his hands through the air.

 _As quick as wind, as sure as day,_

 _Take us afar, off to L-A!_ "

The green light expanded with crackling energy, surrounding them in a neon bubble of static. Sparks shot out from the twine and for a second Jake felt like he couldn't breathe. He looked to where Lao Shi watched from a distance, his passive expression unreadable.

And then the bubble collapsed in a sizzling crash.

* * *

Light glared above where Jake laid moaning, his skin scorched and the air around him stinking of ozone and rotting food. The mound of black plastic he found himself in jabbed its sporadic edges into his back and ribs. He fumbled pushing himself up from the mess, metal and cardboard snapping as the black bags caved beneath him.

"What the…" he sniffed at his soiled sleeve and gagged, "... _ugh_ , this is so rank!"

"I've got you, Long. Up and at 'em."

A hand appeared from above and dragged Jake out and over the edge of the putrid dumpster. He landed on asphalt and shook himself out, cringing at the congealed globs that clung to his clothing. "Oh come on, not the digs. This is my favorite jacket!"

Nigel was again reaching into the dumpster, this time pulling out a sagging mass of gray wrinkles. He set Fu Dog down on his feet, the Shar Pei gawking at the ground in a daze. "Wha...who…?" Fu stiffened, sniffed a paw, and reared back on his hind legs. "Sweet sphinx that's disgusting! Since when is California covered in month-old tuna casserole?!"

Wiping his hands with a handkerchief, Nigel lamented, "Sincerest apologies, it's entirely my fault. An accident, I assure you."

"Likely story," grumbled Jake.

Nigel smiled sheepishly and nodded to a foot away where Trixie and Spud stood grimacing beside the pile of luggage, still wrapped in twine. "The slightest miscalculation. We were only a few feet too far to the left, which is pretty good considering how far-"

"Good? You call this good?!" Fu fell forward on his feet and shook out his fur, spraying bits of garbage in all directions. "Look at me! I smell like the leftovers from a gas station chili bar!"

"More like the _leftovers'_ leftovers," said Spud.

Trixie plugged her nose. "Oh that's all kinds of nasty."

"You know how long this is gonna take to clean out?" the Shar Pei persisted. "It took years to get this fur smelling just the way I like it! I oughta-!"

His voice cut off as Trixie rushed forward and snapped her hand around his muzzle. She ignored his muffled complaints, hissing, "Can it, dawg! Look around, you're gonna attract the wrong kind of attention!"

Distracted from picking away at the filth still covering him, Jake realized for the first time where they were. He had only seen the landscape secondhand from pictures online, but there was no mistaking the apartments curving around them, the waving banners and vibrant courtyard that brought life to the scenery. And between the buildings, pacing over sidewalks with eager steps, was a procession of bustling activity. Wide-eyed teenagers, gray-streaked parents, uniformed staff and upperclassmen, all laboring to carry an endless supply of suitcases, hampers, boxes, and furniture into the dormitories.

"Guys." Jake watched the spectacle from their place in the shadows, grinning with elation. "We're here. We're _really_ here!"

Spud threw an arm around him. "You better believe we are! Free at last, ready to take on the world with our youthful minds and idealism!"

"Preachin' to the choir, boy." Trixie moved to Jake's other side, laughing euphorically. "No more house rules, or nagging parents!"

Spud gasped. "Think of all the fast food!"

"The _freedom!_ " added Trixie.

"The videogames!"

"The classes! The nightlife!"

"And the babes?" snickered Jake.

" _So_ many babes!" Spud cheered. "We'll be _drowning_ in hot foxes once campus gets one look at the Spud-man!"

"Hey, I like reckless abandon as much as the next dog," muttered Fu, "but I still gotta go set up at the office and deep-clean this fur. You kids alright from here? Just follow those directions I gave you when you're done here."

"Oh, we're _more_ than alright," said Trixie. "You do your thang, Fu. We've got this covered."

His nose still twitching with disgust, Fu sat beside Nigel and waited for him to unwind his twine from their luggage. When the twinkling string had been stowed the sorcerer grabbed Fu by his collar, waved his wand through the air, and the two vanished in a flash of green light.

Trixie began slinging bags over her shoulders, loading her arms with as many things as she could carry. She waited for Jake and Spud to claim the rest of the pile before heading for the dormitories. "Alright, y'all, let's get crackin'. Mama Trixie's achin' for some decoratin'!"

The three of them joined the energetic press and were swept into the apartments. Jumbled conversations clogged the air around them, working with the shifting crowd to overwhelm Jake's senses. One woman in a uniform had asked him a question that he couldn't hear but nodded along with anyway. Another staff member had come along soon after, giving them each a rolling dolly cart to carry their things. They trudged further on through the maze of bodies, Jake reveling in every aspect the pristine atmosphere.

They came to a long polished desk where a squadron of staff was servicing the laboring families. Trixie guided them to an opening along the desk and hailed an available man. "Yo, excuse me? Can you tell us which rooms we're in?"

The man turned to his computer and began typing. "All freshman, yes? Were you all assigned to rooms in De Vire Plaza?"

Trixie chuckled to herself and said aside to Jake and Spud, "Ohoo, _De Vire Plaza_ y'all!" She turned back to the man and nodded. "Oh that's us alright."

"And your name miss?"

"Trixie Carter, with a C."

The man typed away a while longer before smiling at his screen. "Here we go. You're on the sixth floor, room twenty-four." He turned in his chair to reach in an open bin, pulling out a ring with a single key on it. "Here is your room key. Don't lose it or you'll be charged for replacements. The elevators are down the hall, there are coin operated laundry rooms on each floor, and you'll find your private bathroom adjoined to your dorm room. Let us know if you have any questions, and welcome to De Vire Plaza."

Trixie grabbed her key, bouncing with excitement. She stepped aside with her dolly to make room at the counter. "Alright, Jakey. You're turn."

The man's smile faltered as Jake approached. His nose wrinkled at the air, but he asked politely, "And your name, young man?"

"Jake Long."

After typing for a moment, a confused look came over the man. "Jacob L. Long, correct?" He then looked over Jake's shoulder. "And are you Arthur P. Spudinski?"

"The one and only," said Spud.

Jake looked back to the man, reading his expression. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid you have the wrong residence hall," the man answered, his courteous tone restrained and cautious. "My registry shows you two sharing a room at Kadrick Crest. Here-" he unfolded a pamphlet map and pointed to a layout of streets, "-at the top of the hill. Take a right outside the courtyard and follow the path north, you can't miss it."

"But we all requested housing at the same time!" argued Trixie. "Why didn't we all get placed in the same dorms?"

The man's fingers flew over his keyboard. "W-well," he stammered, "it seems Mr. Spudinsky _did_ have an assignment here, but was later moved when he requested joint living with Mr. Long."

Jake clapped a hand to his head. "It's because my acceptance came late! The place must have been booked up by then."

Spud waved off Trixie as she turned back on the shrinking staff member. "No worries, Trix, it's just dorming. Why don't me and Jake go set up camp at our place and meet back up with you later?"

Scowl slipping away, she sighed. "Aight, but don't you guys let anyone here jerk you around, ya heard?"

"Definitely," said Jake. He waited for Trixie to drag her dolly down the hall to turn back to Spud. "You sure about this, Spud? We can ask if there's room for you to-"

"What, leave my best bud behind? No way, dude." Spud led the way, shoving through the crowd and back out into the courtyard. "Besides, this place is a little too _ritzy_ for my taste. De Vire Plaza just sounds stuck up. But Kadrick Crest? Now _that_ sounds like a dorm with some seriously rockin' vibes."

They pressed on through the crowds, trekking over sidewalk past street after street of dormitories. Buildings reached skyward to their right, lanes of traffic-jammed cars hummed to their left, and a beating afternoon sun hung overhead. The throng of movers thinned the farther they climbed, but the grade was becoming unbearable. Fire soon consumed Jake's lungs and his filled his mouth with a coppery taste.

"Clitch Suites... _ugh_...Trout Hall…" Spud panted beside Jake, his overshirt wrapped around his waist and his hair dripping with sweat beneath a soaked beanie. With a grunt he craned his head up to the next complex. "Please be it...please be it...oh come on, _Dystrick Commons?_ What does that even mean?!"

Jake switched hands for his dolly and swept an arm over his forehead. "We've gotta be close. The guy said it was the top of the hill, right? I don't see much more-"

He was cut off as Spud let out a cry of joy and bounded ahead. Jake hurried after him, willing his numb legs into movement as they arrived at the hill's summit. Exhaustion gripped him as they reached level ground, bending him over in fatigue while Spud cheered, "It's so...so _beautiful_. I've never felt this kind of affection for a building before!"

Jake finally caught his breath and looked on at their destination. He deflated almost instantaneously. "This dump? You're _sure_ this is it?"

They stood beside a cracked, concrete sign reading ' _Kadrick Crest_ ' with several of the rusted letters missing, evidenced only by their weather-stained outlines. The path behind it led to a rectangular, red brick structure that stood three stories tall with sad, warped windows dotting its length. There were no plants in sight, the exterior was chipped and sun bleached, and the surrounding lawn was a field of desiccated brown grass that crunched beneath their feet.

"Alright, so it could use a little touching up," said Spud, dragging his dolly toward its cracked glass doors. "They're probably just behind on renovations. I bet the inside is way better."

It wasn't. The first thing Jake noticed upon entering was the smell; a meager hint of lavender was layered over the stench of cheap soap, ammonia, and tobacco. The dated wallpaper peeled from the yellowing walls while the popcorn ceiling threatened to drop free above them. At the head of the small lobby, three upperclassman conversed in rolling laughter behind a crooked counter.

Jake leaned toward Spud. "So how are those _vibes_ doing?"

"They're hesitant, but you can't rush the vibes."

"Hey fellas!" One of the upperclassmen waved them over toward the counter. "Welcome to the Crest!"

"The dorms of humble luxury," snickered one of his comrades.

Jake crossed the lobby, his dolly in tow. "What's crackalackin' yo?" He held his fist out and bumped knuckles with the three in turn. "The name's Jake, Jake Long. My man here is Arthur Spudinski, Spud for short."

The men smiled to each other, the jock-looking one on the far right jabbing a finger at Jake. "Jake and Spud? Third floor, room three-oh-five." He turned back to his friends and jibed, "Told you guys I'd get all the cool freshman."

Spud held his hands in front of him. "Let me stop you right there. Like, I'm flattered dude, but I'm more of a _ladies_ man."

The man reeled back, laughing. "Oh this is gonna be a good year! Nah, dude, I'm David Ramirez, the third floor RA. I make sure you freshman don't party too hard, get locked out, try to kill each other...you know, that kind of stuff."

Jake smirked. "So much for no more parents."

"Don't worry, you guys have nothing to worry about," said David. He dug through a cluttered box behind the counter and handed Jake and Spud each a key. " _Mi casa es su casa_. Don't wreck the communal areas, keep the tunes down, and we'll be peaches and gravy, dig?" The buzz cut boy leaned over the counter and eyed their carts. "And just a heads-up, the Crest is a bit old school. Stairs only, gentlemen."

What energy Jake had regained from their walk was lost in the stairwell. When he and Spud weren't fighting to drag their carts up the steps, they were pressed against the wall to let other movers squeeze by them. More than once Jake considered transforming his arms and carrying their dollies the rest of the way, but Spud's objections and the occasional passerby restrained him.

The third floor hallway welcomed them with more of the same dated and poorly kept ambiance. Two corridors branched off from a central sitting area, dividing the girls' and boys' halves. Jake and Spud proceeded to their room, passing by the communal bathroom on the way. Pausing only briefly, Jake did his best to ignore the mildew stench emanating from the foreboding lavatories.

"Three-oh-three...oh-four...oh-five. Bingo." Spud unlocked their room and swung the creaking door open. "Behold, our _ch_ _â_ _teau!_ "

It was dark. There was one bunk bed, two desks, and a half-bookcase. A window set in the far wall was blocked by bent tin blinds. There was just enough room for two people to walk abreast inside. A hissing pipe ran overhead from one wall to the other with water stains decorating both ends.

"Dibs on top!" Spud shoved his dolly into the room and climbed up onto the bunk bed. His cart and luggage alone filled up a third of the space.

"Well…" Jake elbowed his way in and closed the door behind him. "It's...cozy, I guess?"

Spud peaked out over the edge of his bunk. "Bro, open mind. You've gotta give it a chance to grow on you!"

Jake edged past the carts to the window and pulled open the blinds. They snapped upward, throwing dust into the air that sent Jake coughing. The dirty panes beyond, however, revealed a wide, stretching view of Los Angeles. He could see the entirety of the bay below from the Crest's perch on the hill; the curving mountains that cupped the megalopolis suburbia, the sudden concentration of skyscrapers over downtown LA, the shores of the Pacific Ocean extending into the horizon, even the whole of the UCLA campus.

"Wow. So this is the west coast, huh?" He stared awhile at the haze-clouded city. A flutter of excitement revived in his chest. "Doesn't seem so bad."

"Good vibes, dude," said Spud. He reclined back on his mattress to the whining of springs. "Good vibes."

* * *

Rose and amber tinted the afternoon sky above Jake. The autumnal sunlight danced over the buildings around them, casting bright reflections over the downtown streets. He, Spud, and Trixie moved through a crowd of businessmen, tourists, and unsavory types. Street vendors appeared here and there, traffic was congested, and the air hung thick with smog.

All of this felt strangely comforting to Jake, who remarked, "You know other than the heat, LA's not so different from New York."

"I don't know. They call this a 'downtown'?" said Trixie. "This place ain't got nothin' on our skyline, and all the hills are buggin' me out. And have you seen a map of their freeways yet? Whoever designed that mess should be taken to court."

"Freeways? I can't even figure out the streets," Spud groaned, twisting around to read passing signs and stumbling over his shoes. "Come to think of it," he called, "you do know where we're going, right Jake? Because I swear I've seen this weird statue before..."

"That's a fire hydrant, Spud, they're everywhere." Jake glanced again at the paper in his hands and the messy writing that covered it. "And if you want to be the one trying to make out Fu's notes, be my guest. Otherwise…" He paused at a gap between two storefronts, one a bistro and the other a pub. "Hold up, I think this is it."

The other two looked around him at the ominous metal door set into the wall. "See, that doesn't make me feel better," said Spud.

"What would a bunch of magical creatures be doing in some back alley shack?" asked Trixie.

"Oh they're not here." Jake lifted the corroded hatch and pushed the door open. Beyond was a dim concrete hallway with stairs that slowly descended into the earth. He nodded to the corridor. "They're down _there_."

Their footsteps echoed as Jake led the way down the steps. Before they'd gone more than a story or two down, the staircase opened out into a long, silent hallway that ran left and right for what looked like miles. The floor rose and fell in waves down the length of the hallway, and somewhere drops of water smacked out in a steady, unnerving metronome. They were completely alone but for scant piles of garbage and a shaggy man sitting against the wall, hidden in a veritable mound of dirty rags.

"Okay." Jake skipped through Fu's instructions, squinting at the script. "I think we go right next…or maybe left?"

"Oh, oh! What's that?" Spud nudged Jake as he pointed at the cloth-covered man. "Is it a hobgoblin? Let's ask him!"

Trixie was quicker than Jake. She flicked Spud's ear, sighing, "That's a _bum_ , Spud. You know what a bum is, right? Ain't nothing 'magical' about him."

The man straightened up, growing taller and taller as the three of them watched nonplussed. When he'd nearly reached the roof of the tunnel, he pulled off a blanket shrouding his face to reveal a huge, bald head with a thick horn nestled over a single, monstrous eye.

"Hey," the creature growled with a voice like rolling gravel. "Who you calling a bum, sister?"

"Duh, cyclops!" groaned Spud. "Should have seen that coming."

Jake approached the cyclops, stepping around a dumbstruck Trixie. "Awesome! Maybe you can help us out, dude. My name's Jake, I'm-"

"The American Dragon," the creature rumbled. "Heard you were coming. Expected someone bigger."

The crass tone surprised Jake. "Uh, okay? Look, we're trying to find-"

"I know," the cyclops rumbled again.

There was a long pause where Jake and the cyclops watched each other. When it became clear the creature had no intentions of continuing, Jake insisted, "So...can you help us get there or what?"

The cyclops's giant eye focused on Trixie and Spud next. He fixed them each with an intent, almost spiteful gaze. Suddenly he snorted and raised a heavy-knuckled fist to pound thrice against the wall behind him. A section of the chipped and water-stained cement slid sideways, exposing a hidden tunnel identical to the others that extended further beyond.

The creature jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "That way."

Jake nodded to the others and walked onward. "Thanks."

The cyclops ignored him.

Their trip down the tunnel was brief. Small signs of life appeared as they went. Flickers of light in the air, scratches on the walls, even distant echoes of music and laughter. The tunnel's sconces were beginning to dim as they approached the last in a series of turns, darkness threatening to engulf them until they came upon the passage's arcing exit.

Jake stepped over the threshold, wondering at the sight in front of him. " _Whoa._ "

Stretching before them, curving around in a stadium-sized circle and extending deep into the earth, was a massive underground cavern. There was no question of the grotto's origins as its sheer walls were paved and deliberate. Terraces made of concrete and rebar divided the cavern into levels with the center left vacant. From their place on one of the upper levels near the ceiling, Jake could gaze through the gaping pit and see the many levels far beneath them. Massive water mains ran throughout the structure, spouting torrents of water in not always appropriate places, the streams ultimately spilling into the center to collect in what must have been an aquifer far below.

And throughout the many terraces and balconies, nestling in crevices, manning stalls, and visiting storefronts, were magical creatures. There were more than Jake could count, more than he had ever seen gathered in one place barring the Isle of Draco. Centaurs, imps, ogres, dwarves, demons, witches, encyclopedias could be filled with the present variety alone. They flew and congregated wherever space allowed, flooding the city-like chamber with a bustling, supernatural crowd.

A nudging in Jake's side freed him from his trance. He looked down to see Fu Dog, watching him expectantly. "Hello! Jake Long residence, anybody home?"

"Fu!" Jake made a few breathless sounds, looking between his animal guardian and the cavern sprawling in the soft glow of enchanted lanterns and signs. "Dawg, what... _is_ this place?"

"Pretty neat, huh? You're standing in Underdown, a town made from the escape tunnels that run under downtown LA. Mobs built them back in the day to stash booze and stuff, but they haven't been used in ages. So magical creatures did what they do; you know, block 'em off, turn them into a merchant hub, and stick guys like Phil outside to guard it. I take it you guys found Big Phil?"

Jake laughed. "Seriously? Phil the cyclops? Yeah, he's a charmer."

"Oh he's a softy once you get to know him...hey, peanut gallery!" Fu clapped his paws to where Spud and Trixie leaned over the railing of their terrace, still gaping at the otherworldly urbanicity. "Try and stay focused, would ya?"

Trixie stepped back from the railing, a hand rubbing her temple. "Holla, we've seen some pretty crazy stuff but this is trippin' me out."

Spud was wide-eyed and in near hysterics. "This...is... _amazing!_ "

"Right…" Fu shook his head and nudged Jake again. "Say, why don't we fly over to the office and talk there? Won't be as many distractions, if you catch my drift."

"Good idea." Flickering warmth surged out from Jake's chest as he focused on his core. A tingling sensation coursed through him as flames sparked over his skin. "Dragon UP!"

There was a burst of fire and the cavern came into a new focus. Jake could hear the crashing of water far below over the din of the crowd, and he cringed at a rotten smell he hadn't noticed before. "Ugh, Fu. I thought you said you were gonna take a bath?"

The Shar Pei chuckled as he climbed up onto Jake's back. "Oh that ain't me, kid. Don't worry, you'll get used to the aroma."

Trixie and Spud each slid underneath one of Jake's arms. Trixie commented, "I don't know about y'all, but these peeps are starting to creep me out."

"Who, those guys?" said Fu, nodding to the creatures around them whom had all begun to glare and whisper. "It's cause we're new, just ignore them. Head down there, kid, that place three floors down."

Spotting the bland stone edifice, Jake leaped over the railing and soared into the pit. Spud cheered loudly while Trixie and Fu Dog clung to Jake, refusing to watch as he swooped and dove between the waterfalls and lanterns. Passing magical creatures on the terrace looked up and moved aside as they approached. A wide berth in the crowd was given for Jake to land.

He let his passengers climb down, now noticing what Trixie had been talking about before. As far as he could see, there wasn't a single face among their observers that wasn't frowning or scowling in their direction. Disturbed, Jake looked ahead to the building built into the cavern wall and the large sign slapped above its entrance that spelled ' _D.M.C._ '.

"There she is," announced Fu. "The LA Department of Magical Creatures. Since you don't have a front like the old man's shop, you're gonna have to handle all of the official stuff out of this place."

Unconsciously, Jake's chi slipped out of his limbs and returned him to his human form in a flash of fire. The building's fake columns and square design screamed of monotony. "Wow, it's so...bureaucratic?"

"That's the spirit." Fu led them inside. The interior matched the outside to a T with a dated lobby, off putting reception desk, and rows of cubicles beyond. Jake could feel his spirits draining the farther they went, images of the corporate office his father worked in flashing through his mind.

"Come on, your office is in the back. And would you look at that!" Fu Dog stopped beside the desk of a particularly old and crotchety looking gnome. He flashed the small, ancient woman his sappiest smile. "If it isn't my favorite receptionist Margret! How's the hip?"

She blinked at him through thick-rimmed glasses, her eyes magnified three-fold. "A pain, just like you." Her face craned up to peer at Jake. "So you're the dragon, huh?"

Jake held his hand out. "That's me, but you can call me-"

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Dragon," she drolled, turning back to her abhorrently outdated computer. "Your office is ready for you, just down the hall."

"You're a peach, Marge." Fu grabbed hold of Jake's arm and guided him down the hall. "And that's about all you're gonna get out of the old gal. We go way back, she's almost as old as _me_. Ahah, and here it is!"

They came to a plain wooden door at the end of the hall. A bronze plate was affixed to its front, reading ' _J. Long, American Dragon_ '. A twist of the knob revealed the room beyond, a small apartment with a single desk, two chairs, and the enchanted map that Fu Dog had brought pinned to the wall behind.

"Pretty great, huh?" praised Fu. "I got it all spruced up myself. No need to thank me."

"That's a relief," murmured Trixie.

"Needs some posters," Spud added.

Jake walked around the desk and plopped down in his new chair. The seat creaked back as he put his feet up. "It's perfect Fu, but you didn't have to go to all this trouble. Besides, wasn't Nigel supposed to take you home by now?"

"Who, the sorcerer?" Fu yawned and stretched on the ground. "Nah, he left a while ago. Return trips cost extra, remember? I'm sticking with you, kid."

Jake jerked up in his seat. "What?"

An intercom crackled to life on Jake's desk. Margret's drawling voice flowed through the static. " _Mr. Dragon?_ "

"What do you mean, _you're sticking with me?_ " persisted Jake. "You can't stay! Gramps needs your help with the shop in Chicago!"

"And who do you think told me stay?" said Fu. "Lao Shi's been in the business a long time, kid. If anyone's gonna need help, it's you. I can't just let you come to this new turf and get your keister handed to you. After all, I _am_ your animal guardian. It's my job!"

Jake was on his feet now. "Not if it means ditching gramps. I don't care what he says!"

" _Mr. Dragon…_ "

Jake's finger slammed on the intercom trigger. "What, Margret?"

" _There's a wizard here, he says that-_ "

"Nigel! Send him over!" The intercom light flicked off again as Jake reeled back on Fu. "Nigel's taking you back to New York or I'm throwing you on an elevator myself, clear?"

Fu Dog was on his hind legs now too. "Hey, I'm trying to do you a favor!" he barked.

"Well I never asked for one!"

"Oh boo-freakin'-hoo! Don't you think that _maybe_ the old man knows what he's doing? Or maybe you're just mad 'cause you aren't the only one calling the shots!"

"That's not-!"

A knocking drew them both to where a man now waited in the open office doorway. Their new arrival wore a cloak similar to Nigel's, but he stood even taller with a crisp suit and perfectly combed blonde hair.

He gazed around at their party. "I do hope I'm not interrupt-"

Jake vaulted over his desk, transforming in the process to land with his claws inches from the wizard's face. This was a man whom Jake had not seen in some years and had been very glad for it. In a menacing tone, he hissed, "You've got five seconds to tell me why I shouldn't take you down right now, Pandarus."

Eli Pandarus, a notorious wizard with a knack for business and dark magic, watched Jake with careful regard. "And what on Earth would make you want to do that?"

"Are you for real?" scoffed Jake. "How many times have you tried taking over the world or conquering all magical creatures?"

"Yeah, you tried to kidnap me and all those other kids at your fake genius academy!" spat Spud from behind him.

Fu shouted, "You tried to _marry_ me!"

Pandarus laughed softly at that, which only served to enrage Jake further. "I know we've had our... _disagreements_ in the past," he said. "But it's all just that, _in the past._ I've kept my ventures strictly professional these past few years. It turns out world domination really isn't all that profitable."

"And let me guess, you started building puppy orphanages and walking old ladies across streets too?" sneered Trixie.

"Let's say you're legit." Jake lowered his claws, but only slightly. The man, after all, had yet to make a single move. "What do you want? Shouldn't you be back on Wall Street?"

"My headquarters recently moved to San Francisco, as a matter of fact. And I only wanted to make sure you didn't have any issues with your travels today." Pandarus scanned his office, sniffing at the air. "My apprentice mentioned that there was some kind of incident involving a dumpster?"

Jake lowered his arms fully now, flames engulfing him as he shifted back into his human body. "Your apprentice? You mean Thrall? He's-?"

"My pupil, and one of my employees for the time being."

Fu shoved past Jake to jab a claw at Pandarus. "Oh yeah? Well tell that amateur that I'm still digging chunks of asparagus out of my fur!"

"So that's it?" asked Jake. "You came all the way down here just for a customer survey?"

"Well…" A grin slowly tugged at the wizard's lips. "I must admit I was curious to see you too, Mr. Long. After all, it's not every day a young man gets a full-ride to a prestigious university."

There was a twitch in Jake's chest. "What did you just say?"

Pandarus was still grinning. "Surely you must know? The MCI Foundation, the one that gave you the award? One of my many philanthropic programs." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a business card sporting the foundation logo, his contact information listed just below it. "The Magical Creature Inclusion initiative, supporting magical creatures seeking higher educations among humans. A noble endeavor, don't you think?"

"The award...you did that?" The little rectangle of cardstock weighed heavy in Jake's hand. It commanded him entirely, drowning out all other thoughts. He glared back up at the polished wizard. "Did you get me in too? You did, didn't you?"

"I may have spoken with the committee about your application," he admitted. "But it was my pleasure, I assure you. I only leveled the playing field with the other, _non_ -magical applicants. Honestly, not being recognized for your efforts and responsibilities as the American Dragon is hardly fair."

"Take it back," bristled Jake, his pulse pounding in his ears. "All of it. Your money, the acceptance, everything. I don't need your charity!"

Pandarus balked, "Come now, Jake, it's far too late for that. You'd only be wasting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The truth is that success is all about networking, knowing the right people! Everybody knows that. All I ask is that you remember this kindness the next time we run into each other."

Jake wanted to yell at him, to make him say it was all a lie, a cruel joke, but he couldn't. He could only stand there in his new office, seething with the business card crumpled in his fist. Pandarus waited for a moment longer before turning to leave, seeming satisfied.

"And look, you've got your name on a door," he said, tapping the bronze plate as he stepped out of the office. His voice carried from the hallway. "You're moving up in the world already, Mr. Long."

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	4. LA's Least Wanted

**V**

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 **Chapter Four: LA's Least Wanted**

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"Welcome, freshmen, to the University of California, Los Angeles!"

The stadium seats trembled as the crowd cheered and stomped. Every first-year student was gathered in the domed arena on the first early morning of the semester. Though all told they only occupied a third of the tiers, their energy more than compensated for the extra space. The current uproar alone would make any passerby outside think the stadium filled to the brim.

Faculty occupied the polished court below, watching with looks that ranged from enthusiastic to fiercely bored. The man standing among them with the microphone called more loudly over the crowd, "Today is the first day of the rest of your lives! Who's ready?"

Cheers rolled out once again. Jake turned away from the center stage. "Yo, who's that guy again?"

"Some kind of dean, I think," said Spud. "Oh dude, check out that lady in the corner. She's totally digging for gold-"

" _Ssshh!_ " Trixie waved her hand to silence them, transfixed on the man below.

The dean waited for the cheering to subside before continuing, "For twelve years I've had the privilege of giving the opening address, and every year I'm reminded why this institution exists. I look around at all of you, and do you know what I see?"

" _Tuition!_ " came a shout from the stands.

A wave of hollers and whoops rolled through the crowd, even from the dean himself. "Well to the cashier's office, absolutely," he said, meeting boisterous laughter. "But to me? No, I don't see you as tuition. I don't see customers for our bookstores, or bodies to fill our lecture halls. What I see is the _future_. Every one of you, every single one, is going to learn and grow here whether you like it or not. Nowhere else can you unlock your potential in ways you cannot yet imagine. The only uncertainty is what you will do with that potential. Will you become scientists? Politicians? Teachers? Philosophers? No matter where your journey takes you, you will arrive there as a leader of tomorrow. And it all starts today!"

The cheers reached a rafter-shaking peak. Trixie was on her feet clapping with the students, Spud joining in from his seat. None of the thrill reached Jake, however. The scene broke over him as he stared at the dark ceiling, feeling as if he weren't really there at all.

When the dean and some other school officials had finished giving their speeches, the congregation of freshmen was again congratulated and released to begin their studies. Jake, Trixie, and Spud joined the dispersing assembly, navigating dim walkways until they reached the glare of early morning light. The stadium's perch provided a sprawling view of the campus and the acres upon acres of land and facilities that comprised it. Not so far away were the many dormitories scattered around their crooked hill. At the top of it Jake could just make out the dilapidated shape of the Crest. Their first night in the dorm had fallen short of pleasant, but right now there was nowhere he would rather be than their dark, cramped bedroom.

Trixie led them toward the rest of campus below, her bulging backpack bouncing with her stride. "Come on, y'all! Intro to Biology starts in ten, Gen-Chem's at noon, and lab's after that."

Spud yawned. "That sounds great, Trix, but I'm heading back to the Crest. It's about time for my brunch nap, can't miss that."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Trixie spun around and squinted at Spud. "You mean to tell me you're not going to your classes? After all the trouble it took just to get here?"

"Well yeah, I mean until there's an exam or something," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a mashed-up piece of paper. Spud smoothed it out and pointed at what were days of a schedule, each completely filled with overlapping blocks. "I believe in a more self-sufficient study method, and no way am I taking time to go to all these boring lectures."

Trixie snatched away the schedule and gawked at it. "Spud, boy, what are you taking?"

He shrugged. "A little bit of everything, something like thirty-six credits. Anthropology, calculus, sociology, computer science, theater...how else am I gonna find something awesome to do for the rest of my life?"

"Half of these are at the _same time_ , Spud," said Jake. "The university just let you sign up for all of this?"

Spud scratched at his beanie. "Well the lady on the phone laughed when I told her," he said, "but nobody ever specifically said _no_."

Trixie folded up the schedule, handed it back to Spud, and patted him gently on the shoulder. "Good luck to you, man. You're gonna need it." She nodded to Jake. "How about you, Jakey? What's first on your plate?"

Jake made to answer, then realized he didn't remember. He dug out his own schedule from his bag and checked. "English, I think? They gave me whatever the generic classes are, I didn't know what to pick." He sighed and looked back to the hill crowded with dorms. "Maybe I'll head back with you, Spud. I'm not really feelin' it."

"Not you too, Jakey," whined Trixie.

"Hang on, dude." Spud gave him a suspicious look. "Are you really 'not feelin' it', or are you still bummed 'cause of what Pandarus said yesterday?"

Jake sighed. "Both, I guess?"

Spud waved him off. "Like, so what if the money and stuff came from him? You still totally deserve it!"

"Says who, the maniacal Wizard of Wall Street?" Jake shook his head. "Magic always has a cost, and you can bet Pandarus isn't going to let this go. Everything is business for him. He just wants me in his pocket, or to keep me away from the NYC - he's gotta be planning something!"

Trixie touched Jake's arm with deliberate care. "Listen, Jake. I know you don't want to hear this, but maybe…this is a good thing? I mean think about it. Pandarus is smart, he knows he can't buy you. And for once Spud's right - you _deserve_ this."

"But guys-"

"We're not saying Pandarus is off the hook," insisted Spud. "But instead of there being some evil scheme, maybe the world is giving you a freebie!

"I'm not that lucky."

"Bro. If you catch a break, you take it!"

Somewhere out of sight, a bell tolled over the grounds. The paces of passing students quickened as the bell rang out the time, ducking into buildings and abandoning the walkways. Trixie looked over her shoulder, then back to Jake. "Come on, Jakey," she implored. "Just give it a try, for us. Besides, someone's gotta keep me company and we both know it ain't gonna be Spud."

His stomach felt heavy like he'd swallowed a stone, but part of Jake still wanted to believe his friends. "Well," he smirked, "I guess spending Pandarus's Benjamins might make me feel better."

Spud wished them luck, leaving Trixie and Jake minutes to sprint through campus to find their respective lectures. Running through lawns and over pathways brought some life to Jake's step as they weaved through their new stomping grounds. There were so many buildings to know, and they seemed to find a new quadrangle and library around every corner. The paths they crossed felt less like a school campus and more like a small city all on their own.

"There's yours!" Trixie pointed to the nearest hall of brick walls and stone columns, panting as she shoved him forward. "Go, get in there!"

"Catch ya later," he called back, but she was already jogging away and around the corner.

The inside of the building was daunting. Heavy doors opened onto a gaping entryway with vaulted ceilings and glistening wood floor. Jake felt like he'd stepped into a courtroom, the grand, superior air of the building dwarfing him entirely.

A drawling voice carried from an open door nearby. Jake checked the sign beside it, corroborated the room number with his schedule, and slipped inside. The professor, a bald, round man, was skimming over a syllabus projected onto the front of the lecture hall with loathsome disinterest. Staying near the back, Jake sidled into an open seat and observed the rows of students below. Each face he found was watching the professor with rapt attention, their eager excitement as plain as day. He wondered, then, why he didn't feel the same, and the lack of a ready answer made his stomach turn once again.

Resigned, Jake reached into his backpack and paused. He hadn't brought any pen or paper.

* * *

The damp cement tunnel was unusually noisy. Voices echoed up the stairs as Jake approached the passage, his skateboard tucked beneath his arm.

"S'matter grandpa? Don't talk a lot, do ya'?"

"C'mon man, someone's gonna see us."

"Check his pockets. The bum's gotta have some change or somethin'."

"But that guy only said to try and talk-"

A loud growl rattled out as Jake turned the corner. Two boys, no more than gangly teenagers, were backing away from the mass of flowing rags that Jake knew to be Phil. Both newcomers looked startled, the nearest squeaking as he noticed Jake approaching.

"C'mon," he whispered, nudging his partner and slinking away down the tunnel. The other boy followed, the two disappearing with backs turned and heads ducked low.

Jake waited for them to vanish from sight before approaching the bundled cyclops. "Yo, you okay Phil?"

The thick hood raised up, and Phil's large eye gleamed from among the rags. "You think a couple of punks could touch me? Bouncing is what I do, dragon."

"Seriously, dude, just call me Jake." He looked around the tunnel. "Do you have to deal with people like that a lot this close to-?"

"You going in or what?"

The exchange died. Jake sighed. "Yeah, sure."

Phil wrapped his knuckles over the concrete. The wall slid apart and Jake hurried past before it could close over him. He shifted into his dragon form, picked up his bag and skateboard, and flew through the remaining passages, eager to come out into the massive atrium of Underdown. Even considering it was a Monday afternoon the marketplace crowds were surprisingly sparse. The few magical creatures present didn't spare him any cheery looks, however, and he wasted no time gliding through the lantern-lit cavern to reach the DMC.

A flash of fire consumed Jake as he entered, his human skin meeting the buzzing fluorescent lights inside. When his eyes adjusted, he was surprised to find much of the absent populace of Underdown. Magical creatures, looking even less pleased than those outside, were crammed into lines waiting to reach the front counter with numbered paper stubs in hand. Avoiding their attention, Jake ducked through the cubicles to reach the rear of the department.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dragon."

" _Jake_ , my name is-!" Jake stopped beside the desk, pinched his eyes, and breathed deeply. "Never mind. How's it hangin' Marge?"

His fragile receptionist looked at her notepad. "No messages, no new requests."

"Nothing?" Disappointment bloomed anew within him. "No missing creatures, no turf wars, not even a sphinx in a tree?"

"No, Mr. Dragon."

"Well...great. That's great." Jake lingered, tapping his fingers on the desk. "But if something does come up, make sure-"

"Yes, Mr. Dragon."

"Cool."

The lights in the hallway outside his office flickered. Jake's face twisted at the sight of the bronze plate adorning his door, until he noticed the next door a few paces further down the corridor. What was obviously a torn flap of a cardboard box was stuck to its surface with duct tape. Lettering scribbled over it in black marker read ' _F. Dog, Animal Guardian_ '.

Jake pressed the door open, budging it an inch before something on the other side slapped against it in opposition. "Hey, wise guy! Ever heard of knocking?"

"Uh, Fu?"

"Oh, it's you kid." The gray Shar Pei appeared in the doorway, standing on his hind legs as he held the door open with a paw. The office he had claimed, if it could be called that, looked markedly like a renovated supply closet. One corner still held a few brooms and dustpans, the other housed a doggy bed and water bowl, and from the ceiling above hung a single drawstring light bulb.

Jake looked around the space, the task requiring little time and improving his opinion of the Crest considerably. "You wanna stay this bad, huh?"

"Hey, don't you start with that again," warned his animal guardian. "And what'ya mean _this bad_? The old man was too stingy to ever give me my own digs. Compared to the shop, this place is Shangri La." Fu sniffed at the hem of Jake's jeans. "What gives with you? Don't tell me you're cutting classes already."

"A bunch of test dates and book lists, over and over again all morning," said Jake. "I think I'll be fine without another lecture about a syllabus."

"That'll fly with the folks?"

"Does it have to? We're across the country, Fu, I think I can take care of myself just fine."

Fu cocked an eyebrow. "Well, have you talked to them at all? You know you'll need to dial 'em up eventually. I'd bet my tail they're missing you right now."

Jake turned out of the closet and grunted aloud in the flickering hallway. "What I _need_ is work. I don't care what it is, anything to get my mind off of...everything. Cleaning hag cauldrons would almost be better than just sitting here."

Clinging metal from behind followed him out. Fu's persistence only fueled Jake's annoyance, at least until the Shar Pei trotted straight past him and through his office door. "Work, huh?" Fu called from the office. "Well why didn't ya say so? I've got plenty for you to do."

Jake followed into the neighboring room, both guarded and curious. He turned the corner and watched as his animal guardian dragged a box next to Jake's desk by the teeth, nuzzled off the lid, and lifted out a wire basket filled with paper.

Fu dropped the basket clattering onto Jake's desk. "One pile of work, as requested. _Bon Appetit_."

Jake set his backpack and skateboard down by the door. Picking the first paper from the top, he found a letterhead topped with the Dragon Council sigil, addressed to himself and signed by none other than his own grandfather. The lines he skimmed over detailed a request to stop a Chicago suburb goblin crime ring. The next page set Jake smiling, a request for Haley from a senile giantess that asked for foot cleanings weekly. Below that was a spriggan relocation for Greggy and Natalya. High school ghost outbreaks, forests prowled by werewolves, some kind of urban _ninja_ on the loose, it seemed the rest of the country had wasted no time in piling on the work for the others.

"All this in two days?" asked Jake. "Even from gramps - he hasn't even left yet!"

"And you get to sign off on all of it, Mr. _In Charge_. Better get it done before the annual Dragon Summit this weekend, or the old man's gonna bite off both our heads."

"But nothing from the west coast." The spurt of excitement fell with the papers as Jake set the stack back down on his desk. An urge to join in on the tasks had barely had the chance to bloom before he remembered where he was. The fact that it was all in fault to his own plan of action didn't help ease his annoyance.

Jake leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifting to the map pinned on the wall. "Twelve states, hundreds of counties, how many magical creatures, and not a single assignment. What's up with that?"

Fu propped his paws on the desk and shrugged. "It's like I said, people around here aren't used to having a dragon around. Just give 'em time and they'll warm up to you." His muzzle brushed over the desk, scooting the papers back toward the basket while leaving a trail of slobber. "You know what, why don't we just forget about all this stuff and grab a bite to eat? I know this place on the second level, makes a giant-newt steak like you wouldn't believe…"

A ball of crumpled card-stock fell out of the stack. Jake absently flattened it out and fell somber at the sight of Pandarus's business card. Instead of the bile the logo and styled writing had filled him with last night, Jake found himself thinking of the last time he'd spoken with his grandfather before leaving New York. His fingers slipped below his shirt and brushed over the silver medallion hanging from his neck, feeling the ridge curving between its two teardrop halves.

"...and the sauce, _oh_ , to die for. Hey, nice bling. Where'd ya get it?"

"Gramps," Jake answered. "Right before we left. He said ' _he who sits at his foe's table holds no fears_ '. Still haven't figured it out."

"Beats me. Ask him at the Summit - but I'd put my brownies on him makin' it up. The old man's got a weird sense of humor like that."

"Maybe…" muttered Jake, accustomed as he was to Lao Shi's occasional jibes. Still, this felt different. The sayings and proverbs were a serious point to his grandfather's lessons, never a joke. Their interpretation was as significant as the words themselves, and right now there was one meaning in particular that Jake could glean from them.

He dropped the necklace back into his shirt and jumped to his feet, his chair spinning in his wake.

Fu trotted after him into the hallway. "Alright, that's more like it. Giant-newt steak it is!"

"First things first, Fu."

The two sped out of the hallway and past Margaret's desk, paces away by the time she began to drone, "No new calls, no new requests Mr. Dragon…"

They reached the front of the department, the lines of magical creatures having swelled even further. Jake paused to look around the crowd, searching until he settled on a nearby bench. He climbed atop it, then stood on his toes for good measure.

" _Ehem_ , kid?" asked Fu below. "What'ya think you're doing?"

"No idea," Jake whispered back. He then lifted his head, willing his voice to reach over the assembly. "Uh - hey everybody! You probably don't know me, but my name's Jake and-"

Chatter, wails, typing fingers and squeaking chairs all drowned him out. The din of noise didn't waver in the slightest as the horde of creatures continued about their business. Only the few heads closest turned toward him, and even then it was in disgruntled annoyance.

"Forget this." Jake flung his dragon chi throughout his body. The soft, subtle heat surged into his veins, tearing away his human form as it erupted in a burst of flames. Sparks still clung to his scales as he jumped in the air and glided into the thick of the crowd, landing atop the centermost of the service counters. The gnome clerk and her hunchbacked client below both cried out in protest, but Jake passed them over for the assembly before him.

He filled his new, more powerful lungs and bellowed, "LISTEN UP Y'ALL!"

All the idle noise scattered in the wake of his command, leaving the room in sudden silence. Keys fell still and voices hushed. Nothing demanded attention but him.

Jake pressed on. "I'm the American Dragon and I'm here to help this place out! I get that you're not all hot about me getting up in your biz, but too bad – 'cause I'm here now and I ain't goin' anywhere!"

The creatures were listening, albeit with squinted eyes and foul grimaces. None, however, gave any form of response.

The fading of the moment urged Jake to take another deep breath. "So, come on! Throw me a bone, let me pitch in! Just ask anyone from New York, I'm an alright dragon! Give me a chance and you won't regret it!"

The grimaces worked now to form grumbles and whispers between hunched creatures. The words that reached Jake's ears weren't too kind, and the faces he could see didn't seem all that convinced. Those at the edges were working back toward the counters and their clerks.

"Come on!" he protested. "Y'all wouldn't be here if you didn't have some kind of issue, right? You're telling me _all_ of you would take being stuck here all day instead of taggin' me in?"

Near the back of the lobby against the far wall, a vine-covered limb raised into the air. Jake jabbed a claw out into the crowd. " _Finally_ , yeah you! In the back!"

The closest creatures edged away from the figure, who Jake found was what appeared to be not one but nearly a dozen wood-elves grouped together (though the specific plant life woven over them was unfamiliar to Jake). They had broad hands and feet, reed-like hair styled in symmetrical loops, and eyes that had no white or iris, only a small pupil on a globe of pale green. The tallest of their number called with a voice as light and smooth as a breeze, "Can you send the humans away from our forests?"

Jake's head tilted. "Send them away? You mean like…?"

"Take them out, force them to leave. We don't care how," he answered plainly. "Every day they encroach further, growing bolder. They steal from our land and chase rumors of us. We face discovery unless something is done."

"Well normally the way we deal with growing human populations is to relocate you-"

"That's why we're here, but we don't wish to leave," explained the wood-elf, now more indignant. "This is your task. So, what will you do?"

Jake ran his claws through his fringe of black-green hair. "I was actually kind of hoping for something more _physical_ to deal with. If it's just typical humans…"

"Come north to mountains!" cried another, shriller voice. Jake tracked the sound to a dark skinned, gangly woman, her chipped beak, feathered wings, and scaled arms tipped with talons proving her to be some form of harpy. She strutted into sight with her wings jabbing the stubborn crowd aside. "Flying machines spin blades, roar at sky, make war!" she squawked. "Drive our hippogriffs from nests, frighten our chicks! Fight them! Fight them!"

Either too eager or naively optimistic, Jake rose with a burst of excitement - until he puzzled out exactly what she was saying. "Spinning blades, roaring - hold up, are you talking about _helicopters_?"

"Cop-Airs! Cop-Airs!" she chorused, her cries climbing an octave. "Every day, never stop - but dragon stop them! Dragon save nests!"

"Lady, I'm sorry," said Jake, "but that's kind of the same thing. We can move you out and find a new place for your nests, but I ain't gonna go smacking helicopters out of the sky! That's just humans doing what humans do. Unless they're _trying_ to hunt you down or something, I can't stop that!"

"Why not?" argued a new voice, this time from a wart-covered goblin standing not far away. "I'm in the trade business with the Pacific mermaid colonies, but there ain't been no business on a count'a there being no coast left to move merch on! Them _humies_ went and snatched it all up! What's a guy like me supposed to do about that, huh?"

Several others in the assembly hollered in agreement. A faceless figure across the room in dark lavender robes and a pointed hat jabbed a hand in the air and shouted, "Aye! And now they've got those confounded _cellular towers_ everywhere messing with our enchantments! Do you know how hard it is to conjure a proper recursive dimensional singularity with all that interference? Well I don't either - _because I can't!_ "

Three-fold more cheers joined the mutiny. Now every creature was facing Jake, their clenched fists, paws, and claws causing him to lean away with his own arms raised. "Easy, y'all! Let's just dial this down a notch or-"

"They put up street cameras by my favorite overpass, and now I got nowhere to sleep!"

" _Yeah!_ "

"We can't keep our herb farms going 'cause they dammed up all our rivers!"

" _Yeah!_ "

An amorphous mass of glowing purple slime stretched upward and gesticulated about. Little bubbles escaped from it and produced a variety of squelching sounds (along with a horrible stench).

" _YEAH!_ "

"ALRIGHT!" Jake spread his wings and straightened to his full height, the added counter he stood upon putting him above all except a scrunched over ogre in the back. "The humans here are messing with your turf, I get it! That sucks, like really sucks, but what about magical _protector_ isn't making sense? Doing that kind of stuff would reveal us all, it'd only make things worse! Monsters, evil dudes, supernatural thugs, that's my thing!"

The warty merchant goblin heckled, "We don't need _protection_ , we need ACTION! If you can't even deal with some humans, then what good are ya?"

A screech came from the harpy woman. "No more hide! No more wait! Dragon won't stop humans, so we stop! We make humans go!" She turned to those around her, beating her wings toward the ceiling as she chanted, "No more humans! No more humans!"

Jake scrambled for something to say, searching for where Fu Dog had disappeared amongst the crowd, but the harpy's wailing words proved infectious. A ring of creatures around her fell into her rhythm with demanding voices and pumping appendages, then another ring around them, and another, and another. The chant spread like wildfire, the cacophony of sounds growing insatiably. What had only minutes ago been an assembly of miserable, yet orderly, magical creatures was now an unruly mob. Their unrest was unified, powerful enough to shake dust from the roof, and wholly aimed at the crimson dragon above them all.

" _NO MORE HUMANS!_ "

" _NO MORE HUMANS!_ "

" _NO MORE HUMANS!_ "

The chant cut off abruptly as a piercing whistle brought hands to ears. Even Jake's thick paws couldn't keep the ringing out of his skull, reverberating through his head like a drum. When his temples stopped pounding and the shaking left his eyes, he found Fu Dog standing on the counter beside him. His Shar Pei pulled a slobber-coated paw out of his mouth and winked.

"Reverse dog whistle, works every time," he said, giving Jake's leg a nudge. "Go on kid."

The creatures before him, now sufficiently dazed and disoriented, had lost their momentum and broken from their chant. Jake hurried to claim the opportunity with whatever words came to mind. "FINE!" he called. "You want the humans taken care of, that's what we'll do."

Several jaws (and mandibles) dropped. A few of the onlookers even began smacking their ears, as though checking to make sure that they were in fact well of hearing. The lavender-robed figure raised an unsteady finger. "Wait, seriously?"

"Nothing but!" said Jake, surprised by his own confidence. "I don't really know _how_ yet, but give me some time and I'll figure something out!"

The eerie silence finally cracked as a fresh round of grumbling ran through the creatures, their disbelief clear. One of the wood-elves near the back yelled out from the crowd, "Do you promise this? To relieve us of these humans?"

The heads all turned back to Jake. Sweat began to bead even faster on his forehead, running down the sides of his snout. "Promise? Well, I…I'm gonna do whatever I can, you can believe that - _Woah!_ "

A hard yank on his tail jerked Jake back, stumbling off the countertop and past the disgruntled worker whose cubicle he'd tripped into. He reached to feel the welt on the back of his head, trying to regain his balance until the tugging resumed. Jake tripped further into the recesses of the office, knocking into foam walls and toppling folders and bins as he tumbled through the cramped spaces. A dozen collisions and pained grunts passed until he finally came to a tumbling stop, his dragon chi escaping in a swell of rolling fire.

"What're you thinkin' kid?" Fu Dog hissed, his voice seeming to shift around in the face of Jake's dizzied senses. The Shar Pei was easy to pick out against the backdrop of fluorescent light, though determining which of his three blurred visages was the original was another matter entirely.

" _Ugh_ …" Jake sat up against the wall, the solidity of it helping him orient himself. "Holding no fears, or...something."

"Oh, okay, good. 'Cause from where I was standing it looked a lot like making a bunch of promises there ain't no way you can keep!"

The vertigo passed, but Jake didn't try to stand. Beyond the cubicles, the sounds of bickering creatures and clicking machinery were picking up, returning to normal. Unfazed. "They hate us, Fu. Straight - up - _hate_. How are we ever going to help them if they won't even give us a chance? I had to do…something."

"And ' _something_ ' means diggin' yourself a nice, deep grave, huh?"

"That bad?"

"You? Figure out a way to singlehandedly stop millions of humans and decades of growth?" Fu rumbled out a deep-bellied laugh, drumming his paws over the curve of his stomach. "Just wait until the old man hears about it - and the council? Oh man, it's gonna be a good Summit this year!"

As good natured as Fu's glee was, Jake could only feel frustration. He'd finally cracked open the Underdown residents and they'd asked for someone to take action - wasn't that who he was? Who those of the Dragon Order were supposed to be? Yet here he sat without recourse, unable to intervene in this insidious epidemic. Not often did Jake feel truly helpless, the novelty of it leaving him considering which was worse: to be unwanted by those he served, as he had been before, or to be powerless in the face of great need, as he found himself now?

"C'mon, kid," said Fu, still chuckling as he helped Jake to his feet. "Enough introductions for one day, am I right? Let's go grab that steak, a full gut will make you feel better."

Jake let himself be tugged along, his eyes drifting to his feet. It was hard to feel anything but disillusionment. "Yeah...sure."

It was what he guessed flying a hot air balloon felt like, though he'd never experienced it first-hand. He'd been so focused on getting off the ground, setting the flame, freeing the weights, and now he was exactly where he'd wanted to be: stuck in the air with nowhere to go but down.

Well, more like diving head-first out of the basket.

* * *

The following days passed in a slow march. There hadn't been much left for Jake to do following his unorthodox speech at the Underdown DMC. His thus far hollow promises hadn't changed the creatures' distrust of him, so he had taken his friends' advice and turned his attention to school instead. In some ways, it was comforting to lose himself to the routine and work of education, familiarities that were increasingly uncommon in Los Angeles. Yet running between classes, sitting through lectures, and struggling through assignments did little to ease his worries. A sense of dread still seemed to loom over him, exhausting and only growing more difficult to ignore.

The funk in Jake's mood had also begun to have more tangible effects, chief among them being changes to his sleeping cycle. He was increasingly sleeping through his alarms, daydreaming, or arriving in situations such as the one he found himself in now.

With a finger jabbing him in the shoulder.

"Go on, go on."

The finger prodded him again.

A rustle of noise, laughter? It was dull and distant, sounding muffled. "Now that's impressive. Come on, _really_ good this time."

A force rocked his shoulder. Body tilting, Jake's head tipped off his folded arms and thudded to the desk. He startled awake, snapping his head side to side through his mental haze. "Wha…?"

Fresh laughter broke out, much clearer now. Rows of seated students, whiteboards and a projector at the front of the room, laptops, buzzing ceiling lights - lecture. Core Humanities, he remembered now. It was their first actual lesson, in that it was focused on something other than textbooks and plagiarism. Something to do with Greek myths, heroes and wars and...and…

...and why was there a hand on his shoulder?

" _Ahem_."

Jake turned at the cough, following the arm to its owner - a girl to his right. Young like him, straight black hair down her back, and a playful dimpled smile. Her brown eyes were bright and wrinkled as she laughed, darting toward the front of the room where she eagerly nodded. It took a moment before Jake understood her urgency and looked back down toward the whiteboards, finding another woman, older and more formal, smiling at him.

"You're awake!" she said, clapping her hands together. "What a relief. So glad you could join us again, mister…?"

"Jake," he said while hurriedly raking his hair. He noticed a trail of spittle leading from his mouth down below to a dark stain on his open notebook, and quickly rubbed the smear of drool from the corner of his mouth. "I'm Jake Long, Miss…Connally?"

" _Dr._ Connally," she said with a pointed finger. She wore a simple but clean monochrome dress and was of average height, her inch or so heels giving her an added boost. "Or professor. I don't really care about the titles, but most of your instructors will so just get used to it. Now, go ahead and tell us what _you_ thought about the readings for today."

Panic hit him like a shotgun blast. His eyes flashed to the desks around him. He found a copy of their book a couple chairs down, eagerly skimming the cover's title and artwork complete with warring men in battle. The ancient artist had given them sculpted bodies spread in wide stances, scarcely clothed with lances, shields, and swords held high.

"The Iliad!" he said with a start, just a bit too loudly. The passages he'd read the night before came back to him, albeit slowly and in disorganized pieces. "My thoughts…well, to be honest I…thought it was pretty boring."

That got a few more laughs, though not as many as before. Dr. Connally at least still seemed entertained rather than irritated. "That's perfectly, fine," she said, smiling indifferently. "The good thing about analyzing literature is you're free to form whatever opinions you like - as long as you can back it up. So please, back it up. Why was it boring?"

Her line of questioning only drew Jake further to the edge of his seat. It took him back to being lectured by his grandfather; no, more like coerced by his mother into doing chores. There was a goal being dangled above him that he couldn't yet see. "Well this is supposed to be all about the Romans going-"

"Greeks."

"Right, my bad, _Greeks_ going over and showing the Trojans what's what - but the first few chapters were just the two main dudes-"

"King Agamemnon and Achilles?"

"Yeah, them and a bunch of other people just sitting around and talking! And then the gods ruin the ending and straight up _tell_ Achilles that he's gonna die." Saying the words out loud affirmed Jake's fear that he was certainly missing something, but there was nothing for it now. He shrugged, "I guess I don't get it."

If college was anything like high school or his family, this was about the time that the person opposite him would take charge, point out the flaws in his argument, and thoroughly correct him. It was fine; it wasn't the first time something in school (or out) had gone over his head and it wouldn't be last. Dr. Connally's expression hadn't shifted from her simmering pleasure, but he knew what to expect as she opened her mouth to speak. He folded his arms, bracing.

"Excellent observations."

Well that wasn't right. Jake squinted at the woman. "Wait, really?"

"Absolutely," she said, seeming genuine. Perhaps, Jake thought, she practiced particularly subtle sarcasm. "The poem is slow-paced at the start, but that can be said of the beginnings of many stories. It relies on exposition and dialogue that include the gods themselves, yet are, as you said, still pretty boring. However, if an author devoted so much time of a work focused on one camp, circling the same people, then it stands to reason that there must be something important occurring. Wouldn't you agree?"

Jake hadn't thought of it that way. "Well…yeah, I guess so."

The professor's smile perked up. "Going forward this semester, I want you to take it further. Don't just notice these events, reflect on them. Question them, connect them." She turned and walked back to her podium, powering down the projector with a click of a remote as she went. "And if you had stayed awake, you would know that your classmates made remarks much like your own. Now we're all five minutes late - next time I won't repeat myself. That's it for today, everyone. Keep up with the readings and enjoy the weekend!"

Jake hadn't even noticed that they were over time, so accustomed was he to being directed by the ringing of bells. Some of the students were already packed and hurrying to leave the room, though Jake didn't understand their rush - it was Friday afternoon. At least for him classes were finished for the week. Formerly that would have given him some sense of thrill, but now outside of classes there weren't many ways to spend his free time. Nothing but idling in his small dormitory and being shunned from magical society.

Still, he had no intention of moping in a lecture hall. He slipped his stained notebook into his backpack and flipped his desktop aside to stand, joining the throng of students headed for the exit at the front of the room.

"Mr. Long?"

He stopped and turned, finding the professor watching him intently. She made no jerk of the head or hand movement urging him to join her, but Jake understood her intent all the same. A brisk climb down the stairs brought them face to face. "Hey Ms. - _Dr._ Connally. Sorry again about passing out, it won't happen again. Promise."

"I'll hold you to that," she said. Jake couldn't stop himself from grimacing, thinking of the promises he had yet to make good on. Connally cocked an eyebrow at that, but didn't pry further. "A quick word about one of your other comments, on how the gods, as you put it, ruined the ending?"

"I swear I wasn't trying to be a smartass-"

"No, no," she said, waving him down. "Even if unintentional, it was an important insight. You're right, the poem tells us how it ends straight away. If Achilles goes to war, he will die."

"And he does, so he will," said Jake. "So why bother?"

"Asking questions, that's more like it." She walked beside him toward the door. All the other students had already drifted around them and left. "Entire textbooks have been written to answer that question. But if you ask me, it's because the Greeks didn't care about the ending."

Jake screwed his face up at that. "But the ending's the whole point! What else is there?"

Dr. Connally sighed softly to herself. "The journey," she answered, looking at nothing in particular. "Seeing what choices someone will make, even when they know how it will end. Isn't that exciting?"

The conversation had drifted above the limits of Jake's abstract thought, or at least beyond that of his still sluggish mind. He took the door into the hall outside. "If you say so, prof. See you Monday."

"And you - _well rested_ I hope!"

Jake stepped quickly through the building with his bag held close. His pace betrayed his calm demeanor. Something about the high ceilings and refined architecture still made him uncomfortable, like he was trespassing on private property or jaywalking into traffic. It wasn't until he'd walked out into the hot afternoon air and met the sounds of a lively campus that he let his focus shift back to his surroundings.

The exit he'd used faced westward where the sun was starting its slow descent. He cringed as summer heat washed over his skin and the light burned his eyes. The affront to his senses only made the rest of the scene that much more impressive as dozens, possibly hundreds of students made their way along the concrete paths. The bustle moved with a common purpose, students so like him of how many heights, ages, and colors all heading uphill in one direction. Jake joined the procession, heading deeper into campus toward faint music that echoed between the brick buildings. In the distance awaited the quad where a festival was in full swing.

The crowd's coordination made Jake think back on what Dr. Connally had said. He knew where they all were headed. Following them for the sake of discovering their destination was pointless, because…well, there was nothing to _be_ discovered. Even so, there was something about how everyone went about achieving the same ends he found interesting. Did they take the winding path around engineering buildings, or the staircase that cut straight to the student union? Were they in a hurry or lounging in their strides? How many were in groups, and how many alone? And who chose not to go at all? So many possibilities with a future that was, as that of Achilles, fixed.

Compared to his own recently directionless spirits, the performance gave Jake a strange sense of peace.

Plenty of buildings and trees shaded their walk, which itself was thankfully short. They turned a final corner around the library and reached the largest quadrangle on campus. A field of lush, freshly mown grass stretched out in a rectangle with dimensions like that of a football field, possibly larger. Concrete paths outlined the field with thick, tall trees evenly planted just beyond them to give cover and rustle in the wind with their fat leaves. More red-brick buildings stood sentinel beyond the trees. The grandest among them was the student union, which rose at the far end of the quad atop a multi-tiered hill. Stone staircases bridged the gap up the grassy hillside to meet its columns and domed roof. The structure itself reminded Jake of the temples back on the Isle of Draco.

Jake found himself admiring the sight, the grandeur of the university only amplified by the rows of decorated tables crossing the quad like a checkerboard and the countless people shuffling between them. Apparently, as Spud and Trixie had explained to him, the university hosted a Club Fair at the end of the first week of school for students to see the different organizations on campus open for them to join. Judging by the copious decorations and the speakers set up at the corners of the field, the school cared a great deal about this event.

Jake didn't share the enthusiasm, but Spud and Trixie had made him promise that he'd go. So, he'd go.

At least this promise he could keep.

The crowd of stands and mingling students was so dense Jake could only see two, maybe three rows in front of him. His short stature did little to help. Finding his friends would be difficult from where he was along the fringe of the fair, and nearly impossible from within it. The student union again drew his attention, as well as the rolling hilltop it sat upon. People lounged on the green slopes, elevated above the crowd. Jake moved to join them for a better view.

He'd made it about halfway down the length of the quad when he heard a familiar voice. "Jake! Yo, Jake!"

Jake followed the sound, looking between the faces nearest him. The tables he'd stopped at were covered in Greek lettering with matching huge wooden symbols propped up on the lawn with supporting steaks, like an easel would hold a painting. Students attending each stand were grouped into men and women, wearing clothing painted vibrant colors. A man stepped out from behind a table two spots back. Tight T-shirt, buzz-cut black hair, only slightly taller than Jake himself. He reached a fist out, which Jake reflexively bumped with his own. "What's up man! It's good seeing you somewhere besides the third floor. How'd your first week go?"

Now Jake recognized him. David, the RA for their floor back at the Crest. "Pretty chill," Jake answered. "Classes are slow so far. What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the dorm?"

David laughed. "They let me leave, you know. I've got my own stuff going on to, frat for one."

"Uh, frat?"

"Fraternities, my man." David jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the table behind him. "I'm here helping recruit for mine, Gamma Gamma Gamma - Tri-Gam for short. None of the other frats even come close to us, if you're looking for one to join. Rush starts next week, and you've gotta rush to get in."

A group of guys meandered behind the table, some lounging and others playing some game involving tossing bean bags at a wooden board with holes for targets. All of them wore shirts and hoodies that were slate gray with three fat, red, upside-down L's stitched onto them.

"Fraternities," parroted Jake. "Like 'toga parties and hazing freshman' kind of fraternities?"

"Parties, _definitely_." David leaned in closer and muttered, "Hazing not so much, between you and me. Administration cracked down pretty hard on it a while back. But don't tell anyone, it's still fun watching newbies freak out about it."

Jake rubbed the back of his neck and slid a step back. "Sounds like fun, man, but I don't really think it's my thing. I'm just lookin' for my roommate Spud anyway. Have you seen him around?"

"Lanky dude with the beanie, right?" David tapped him on the shoulder and pointed off to the far corner of the field where the quad ended just below the sloped hills. "Pretty sure I saw him over that way a little bit ago. And no worries about Tri-Gam." He pulled a square of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Jake. "Here's a copy of our rush schedule in case you change your mind. I know everyone thinks of frats like they're for lazy kids who want to drink their undergrad away, but that's just a stereotype. If you know any other freshman who look like they're having a tough time getting used to things here or need an awesome group of guys to look out for them, send 'em our way. Cool?"

"You got it." Jake stuffed the flier in his pocket - he didn't plan on attending the listed events but felt refusing it would only have been more awkward - and made his way into the thick of the crowd. Cutting across the field seemed the quickest option, plus it put him out of sight from David and the other fraternities. As he passed them, Jake noticed that the men of Tri-Gam indeed looked just like any other group of friends hanging out on a sunny afternoon. Still, the last thing he needed was another obstacle to juggle on his growing list of problems.

The tables were changing as he went further in, shifting to different categories. Professional groups for different professions, then artsy clubs for dance or music, then a smattering of random hobby groups. Jake smiled at the thought of students putting the time and effort into organizing entire clubs just to put puzzles together or play board games. A pang of disappointment crossed him at the lack of any such group for skateboarding.

The last of the tables at the corner of the field were dedicated to various student governments. Jake walked past the undergrad student council, diversity groups, even intramural sport teams, but he had no luck finding familiar faces.

He turned to climb the hill for a better view.

And then froze at the sight of a satyress.

He did a double-take. _Definitely_ a satyress.

She was young but fully grown, likely around Jake's age, standing by a few other students at a relatively drab table. Nothing but a cheap tablecloth and a sign hastily made in what looked like crayon decorated it. This of course emphasized the two painfully obvious goat legs, drooping ears, and small pointed horns of the satyress. Jake wasn't sure which surprised him more, the humanoid creature herself or the fact that no one around seemed to care about her in the least.

Without thinking, Jake began to approach the table. The satyress noticed him when only a few feet separated them. Her eyebrows moved closer with worry, apparently due to whatever pained face he was making. "Hey there - are you alright?"

"Are you _crazy?_ " said Jake, his tone attracting pointed looks from the rest of the group. He continued more softly, "Everyone can see you! Are you trying to expose yourself or what?"

"Oh!" Her concern vanished, replaced instantly with glee. She clapped her hands and smiled over her shoulder. "Hey guys, we've got another one!"

The joy instantly spread to her friends. The two boys got to their feet while the other girl remained seated in her wheelchair. The taller of the two boys grinned so wide Jake could count his teeth, which quite literally shined a bright white against his dark skin. "Awesome! That makes five, enough for an acapella quintet!"

The girl in the wheelchair rolled her eyes profoundly, one hand reaching to her forehead while the other held the blanket covering her legs steady. "For the last time, Wal, you're the only one that even sings."

"More like howls," giggled the satyress. Her voice tinkled like chimes, particularly as she noticed the taller boy - Wal - blushing. She refocused on Jake, who had been watching the exchange bewildered. "So, what are you, if you don't me asking? Maybe some kind of half-elf?"

"A warlock?" guessed the sitting girl. "Ooh, what about a _siren?_ "

"A tenor?" said Wal.

"Everybody just hold up," said Jake, turning back on the satyress with a sigh. "You told them about magical creatures? How much do they know?"

"Oh, right! _Duh_ ," she said with a tap on her forehead, still all too pleasant. "I should explain - we're all magical creatures! My name's Merida. Wallace here is a werewolf-"

" _Lycanthrope_ ," the tall boy corrected sharply. "And just Wal is fine."

"This is Edith, mermaid. You're from one of the Pacific Rim colonies, right?"

"Olympic Colony, just outside Portland," said Edith. She had a thin frame and short blonde tomboyish hair that was only a few inches long and naturally fanned to the side, creating the illusion that it was floating as though submerged. The style was uncommon for a mermaid, though she wore it well. Small shells dyed neon pink and green were pinned to her ears. She patted the blanket covering what Jake now assumed to be her fish-like tail and smirked. "The sea legs make getting around a bit tough, but I still prefer to be on land."

Merida the satyress waved to the other boy. Hands in his pockets and standing with a slouch, the only part of him visible beneath the hoodie, jeans, and mop of brown hair was his somewhat pinched face. Eyes of a vivid green scrutinized Jake, who couldn't help but wonder how the guy wasn't sweating to death beneath his clothing. "And last is the quiet one of the group, Zachary. He's-"

"-a sylph, _spirit of the wind_ ," finished Zachary with sarcastic flair. "And let me guess, you're the American Dragon?"

Jake flinched in surprise and waved his hands down frantically toward the table, as though trying to fan the others. He looked to the sides for any eavesdroppers, suddenly feeling like they were being watched. "Keep it down, would'ya?" he hissed.

"So, it's true!" Merida clapped her hands in an excited flurry, giggling. "Show us! Please? I've never seen a _real_ dragon in person before!"

"Oh sure, no problem. I'll just go full dragon right in front of _all these people!_ "

"Awesome! Is that real?!"

They all turned at the unknown voice, finding a new girl who'd approached their table with eyes wide with awe. Average height, shoulder length hair, tank top and shorts. She stared avidly at Merida's exposed legs - coarse fur, hooves, and all.

The satyress smiled brightly at the newcomer. "You bet!"

Jake's jaw dropped, but Merida continued with perfect cheer, "We used 100% authentic fur and leather stitched into nylon leggings and real horns for the makeup. Have you ever worked with natural materials before?"

"Just synthetics, nothing like _this_."

Merida and the girl continued to chat, Merida introducing her to the others even though she was the only one doing the talking. Their conversation, however, steered far from any topics of magic or the paranormal. After a few minutes with Jake watching in utter confusion, the girl wrote her contact information on the back of their sign and left. Merida flipped it back over and Jake read the rushed handwriting for the first time: _Costume Design Club_.

"It was Merida's idea," explained Wal, likely interpreting his bafflement. "One of us stands out in the open to catch the eye of any magical students while everyone else thinks we're a club about making costumes. Theater and stuff, you know. Of course, there _is_ no club. We only started it last year, but it's been a pretty good system so far. It's nice having other non-humans to talk with on campus."

"I went first last year," said Edith. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. "I was ready to deck the next jerk that touched my tail. But…" her lips curved into a lithe smile, "...next year is Zachary's turn. I can't _wait_ to see what's under that hoodie."

Zachary groaned audibly.

With the brief distraction having passed, Jake's impatience returned in full force. "Speaking of Zach," he said, "how in the heck do you know who I am? I thought you said you were a sylph, not a psychic."

The boy shrugged. "Friend mentioned you were one of the ones that got Pandarus's grant. Nigel Thrall. You know him?"

Heat rushed to Jake's cheeks. "Nigel. That little…that wasn't-"

"Isn't it just awesome?" said Merida, at last taking care to speak more quietly. "I was so happy when I got his letter. I'd still be stuck in my parents' hovel if it wasn't for Pandarus!"

Wal hummed in agreement. "Same for me. I had to drop out of high school, but Pandarus still pulled some strings to get me in. He did for all of us, one way or another."

Each of them nodded, almost reverent. Jake couldn't believe his eyes. "But it's _Pandarus!_ " he said. "I don't know about way out here, but east of the Rockies the guy had his hand in every gang and scheme there was! Why would you take a deal from a guy like that?"

"Why not? Didn't stop you," Zachary shot back with a slight glare. "You or the other girl."

"Other girl?"

"Jake!"

He turned at his name to see Trixie hurrying towards him through the crowd with Spud following shortly behind her. Still wearing his beanie almost solely to spite the summer sun, Spud's hands were filled an uneven pile of papers, fliers, and free knickknacks. Jake could see no pattern in the dozens of different organizations he'd visited, which ranged in purpose from bird watching to retro video games. Trixie held a few labeled pens and button pins of her own that flashed symbols of squared crosses, hearts, and what looked like a staff with snakes winding around it. Apparently, she'd wasted no time in pursuing her dreams of working in medicine.

She stopped in front of him, breathing heavily from their jog. "Jake, we gotta-"

"Spud," sighed Jake as his lanky friend joined them, his pile of advertisements slowly collapsing in every direction. "Don't you think you're taking on a bit too much? We all know you're probably the smartest guy here, but all this and your classes might _literally_ kill you."

Spud waved him off, sputtering his lips. "Come on Jake, of course I'm not joining _all_ of these - I just wanted the cool lanyard from the archery team." His eyes drifted over Jake's shoulder and snapped to life. He pointed a finger, his stack finally falling to litter the crushed grass below. "Woah! I didn't know they had centaurs in California!"

Still standing beside their table with legs and horns out for all to see, Merida put her fists to her hips and pouted at Spud. It was strange for Jake to see her express anything other than perfect bliss. "I am _not_ a centaur!"

"Satyress, dude. Two legs." Jake went down the table, pointing at the other three members. "Werewolf, mermaid, sylph. Go easy on 'em."

Spud didn't appear to have heard him. He hopped up onto the table and sat cross-legged, goggling at each of the creatures with an uncomfortable degree of enthusiasm. Jake turned away from the introductions to help Trixie with their friend's mess of abandoned papers, which flipped and tumbled around the ankles of passerby.

"Other magical creatures, huh?" Trixie shook her head with a sigh, the loose bob of her hair flopping with the motion. "That won't make things easy."

Jake glanced sideways at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That's not what I meant. You know I'm cool with all that business, but…" She held the papers closer to her in crossed arms and stood, giving him a strangely concerned look. "It's what I was trying to tell you-"

Jake got to his feet as well and stepped past Trixie, cutting her off. His eyes were sifting through the dense crowd near the center of the fair. He could have sworn there had been a flash of a face, only for a second. There were so many people, though. People appeared and vanished in seconds. Bodies intertwined in a constant churn. But that face, he was _certain_ …

"Homeboy, _listen_ ," Trixie chided to his back. "You should know someone's here-"

 _There_!

Jake took off at a jog, his papers fluttering back to the ground in a flurry.

He hurried deeper into the quad, where the students were most closely pressed together and the stands overflowing. Even without a backpack Jake struggled to maneuver through the bodies. An elbow caught him in the stomach, but he barely noticed. His focus was solely on the wave of pale blonde hair drifting in and out of sight.

Jake pressed on more quickly. Something drove him forward, some feeling or obsession. Vigor, energy, thrill - he remembered now. Leaping rooftops in New York City, chases through the sewers, exchanging blows under the dark cover of night in Central Park. He could never forget the days when he was both hunter and prey. The days when he pushed the powers he barely understood to their absolute limits. All because of his greatest enemy, the enemy of all magical creatures that was always just out of reach.

Jake's hand clasped over her shoulder.

Her hand snapped back, crushing his wrist and twisting it as she spun to face him. It was startling how little she had changed in four years. Blonde hair flowed back to her shoulders in waves, leaving her round, bright blue eyes and pointed nose exposed. There wasn't a scar or blemish on her smooth cheeks, and her strong features were saved from the softening of makeup. At some time, they'd come to about the same height.

"Rose!"

Her tense expression smoothed. The glare and grip vanished, and her frown slipped away into neutrality. "Jake."

He looked down at her relaxed hand, seeing the birthmark he knew so well - one shaped uncannily like a dragon, twisting around her right wrist and ending with its head and wings on the upturn of her palm. It was a marking all magical creatures had feared for millennia. Yet here stood the last one he knew of, likely the last in the world, along with its bearer. She was a living weapon, trained to hunt and kill dragons just like him in innumerable ways.

She was also the first and only girl he'd ever loved.

"This is crazy," laughed Jake. He looked back to her face, noticing the distant look she held. "You're going here? For real? I mean, that's insane! What are the odds? I haven't seen you in forever - why are you back in the states? Is your family still in Hong Kong?"

Rose's expression was frozen like ice, cold almost pained. Her gaze was fixed on him. "I'm sorry Jake, but please. Don't do this."

"Do what? What're you talking about?" A thousand questions fought to be asked, and a thousand more feelings hurled them around in a storm. Not to mention his confusion with Rose. Why did she look so... _sad_? It didn't make sense. "Come on, let's go grab something to eat and catch up! There are some places in the student union-"

"Jake!" Trixie appeared from the crowd and instantly looked defeated when she found him and Rose face to face. "I'm so sorry, Rose! I didn't get a chance to tell him!"

"I don't want to catch up with you," she said to Jake, giving no notice to Trixie. "I don't want to be around you at all. So please, just _leave me alone_."

"What? But Rose-"

She'd twisted away and pressed back into the crowd, already becoming lost amidst the countless students. Jake moved to follow, but Trixie held him back with a hand against his chest. "The last thing she wants is to be around you, trust me."

"Why? What's going on?" he demanded. "You knew she was here? For how long? Why didn't you say anything?!"

She turned her lips into a pout and planted her hands on her hips. "Now I _know_ you didn't just mean to get sassy with me. I only found out yesterday - it turns out Pandarus offered her that same grant that you got. But then she told me _explicitly_ not to tell you she was here." Trixie crossed one arm and scratched her head with the other. "We never did find out why she up and stopped talking to you after Hong Kong, did we?"

"No," he said. It wasn't a time he liked to think about. One moment he thought they'd finally have the chance at a normal relationship, and the next she blocked him out. Phone calls, letters, chat rooms, there was no getting through to her. Weeks turned into months, and months into years, without an answer. The pain of it had dulled with time, but that burning desire to know _why_ had never truly left him.

"Whatever it was, she's still not over it. Let me talk to her, Jakey. I'll see what I can do." Trixie gave him a thump on his chest and pushed through the crowd in the direction that Rose had left. Jake watched her until she was out of sight. The sick sense of dread had finally been lifted, only to return twice fold.

Rose was back. She was _back_ , but what good was it if she hated him? And did she really hate him, or was it something else? If only he knew the why...and then there was Pandarus. The wizard seemed to have his hands in everything the past few days, of course he was behind Jake's first romance showing up out of the blue. Was this part of some plan of his? Why would he go through all the trouble to collect the two of them and the other magical creatures here?

Jake's training had ingrained in him the importance of these tactical reflections, but he found it difficult to care about them. What was the point when all he could think of was likely the greatest regret of his life, now so close yet just as far as always from his reach. Once upon a time she had been everything to him. In some ways, she still was.

And she'd just walked away from him with barely a word.

Something hard and cold slipped over his wrist at his side. In less than a second it had zipped closed with a clicking sound and crushed skin against bone beneath it. Jake absently shifted his arm forward and out of the way, only to have it snap against a taught chain extending just behind him.

"Don't struggle, and don't cause a scene. There are witnesses," an unfamiliar voice said behind him, soft but firm, slightly effeminate. A woman?

Mild surprise finally gave way to shock. He tried to turn around to look at the stranger, but a strong hand gripped his shoulder hard, facing him forward. "Yo, what's going on? Who the heck are you?"

"Detective Hanna Carson. Jake Long, you're under arrest."

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	5. EXCON 5

**V**

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 **Chapter Five: EXCON 5**

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 **Four Years Ago…**

"So she tried to _kill_ you? On multiple occasions?"

"Kind of," said Jake, struggling to explain his relationship with Rose from the back seat of their rental car. After making a few wrong turns, they'd reached the residential area where he thought Rose's apartment had been. It was dark when she'd brought him there the night of the attack, but the buildings were beginning to adopt more familiar narrow, geometric architectures. "But only because that's how the Huntsclan raised her. She changed when she found out who I was - or who the American Dragon was, I guess."

"And here I thought your _mother_ was one heck of a firecracker." In the front passenger-side seat, his father rested his chin on his hand and tapped it thoughtfully. "Still, she did save us a couple nights ago back at that temple-place, or whatever it was. Whoa _doggy_ was she something with that spear...laser... _thing_."

Jake laughed, "You weren't so bad yourself, pops."

It was strange talking so casually with his perfectly human father about magical business, especially considering it had only been two days since the Jonathan Long's trial-by-fire exposure to the magical world. The feeling of it was hard for Jake to describe. Relief, maybe? That was certainly part of it, given how well the man had adjusted to the earth-shattering news that he'd unwittingly married into a family of shape-shifting dragons.

"There!" Jake pointed to an apartment a little way further down the street. A wind-chime hung from the tree in front of it, the only one sight. Only after seeing it swaying in the breeze did he remember hearing its gentle notes. "Pull up right there gramps!"

His grandfather - the only one among them with experience driving in Hong Kong - pulled the car to a stop against the curb. Jake undid his seat belt and jumped out, saying as he went, "Don't worry, this will only take a sec."

"Just remember we've still got to pick up the girls before we head for the airport!" his dad called from the window.

Jake hurried up the steps of the building, glad to have some space from his family. He'd told them he only needed to say goodbye in person before they left to return to New York City. The truth was that he hadn't heard a thing from Rose since they parted after the battle two nights ago. It had been an emotional evening, on multiple accounts. A ceremony involving a gathering of the entire Dragon Order at a temple just outside Hong Kong had become a trap for the rogue Dark Dragon to destroy the Order. Even with Jake, his family, and all of the other dragons fighting together, the power of their enemy had proven almost unstoppable. It had seemed that they were doomed to fail.

That was when Rose, Jake's former adversary turned romance, had arrived. With her skills as a former member of the long abolished Huntsclan, the Dark Dragon had been defeated and trapped within the temple, swallowed into another dimension and defeated once and for all. She had saved every dragon and magical creature in the world, and her and Jake had finally reconnected after months apart. To Jake, it had felt like decades.

All told, the night had been one of the most terrifying and wonderful of Jake's life.

Then the next day came, and Jake couldn't reach her. He called, again and again throughout the day without an answer. The next day her number was disconnected. He couldn't find a number for her house phone, and even tried walking the streets for a while with no luck. As badly as he wanted not to worry, the lack of response from her only fanned his anxiety. There was no way he could leave without making sure she was alright.

Jake pressed the doorbell, then wrapped his knuckles over the door for good measure. He tapped his foot impatiently, counting the seconds that went by. What if there was some accomplice of the Dark Dragon that had kidnapped her? Or maybe she had some injury from the battle and was in the hospital? Why else wouldn't he have gotten through to her? It would be _his_ fault if she was hurt. The thought alone…

The door creaked open, Rose just visible through the crack. Tension left Jake in a rush. He stepped toward the threshold, eager to step inside and embrace her. "Rose! I was worried about-"

She raised a hand through the doorway and held him at arm's length. "I'm fine," she said with an unusual monotonicity. "Sorry for not talking with you since…"

"It's cool," said Jake. He took a step back and let Rose's hand fall back to her side. Something seemed off about her, like she'd lost her usual spark. He was used to their witty banter, the back and forth that used to flow between them. Now there were bags under her eyes and she looked anywhere but at him. She seemed almost depressed, or maybe just exhausted. "What's up? Is something wrong?"

"No, but...I think I need to be alone right now." She reached for the door and moved to close it between them. "Give me some time, okay?"

"Oh, okay. Well we're heading back to New York so I came to say-"

The door closed. Jake stood there staring at it, still imagining the almost mournful expression that Rose had held. Above all, he found himself utterly dumbstruck.

"...goodbye."

A horn honked from the street behind him. "Hurry up, Jakers!" his father called. "Time's a wastin!"

"Yeah, sure," he muttered. It took some effort for him to tear his eyes away from the door and walk back to the car, all the while unable to fully shake himself awake again. He felt deeply confused and unsettled, but there was one thing he was absolutely certain of.

Something had changed in Rose the Huntsgirl.

* * *

 **Present…**

It was the first time Jake had ever been in an interrogation room.

The funny part of it was how everything looked _exactly_ like he'd always seen on crime shows. There was a single, overly bright light buzzing overhead. The wall behind him had a sliver of a window covered in wrought iron grates while the one in front flaunted what everyone and their mother knew was a two-way mirror. A camera was set in the corner of the ceiling, a blinking red light answering the question of whether or not they bothered to keep it working. Every surface looked like it was paved with cement, and Jake didn't want to consider where all of the different stains had come from. His uncomfortable metal chair even matched the metal table to which his hands were cuffed. It was almost enough to make the anxious part of him want to laugh.

Then he remembered the bald, towering officer sitting across from him in a uniform and blackout sunglasses. The man was built like an NFL linebacker and had done nothing but glower at Jake since they'd brought him here. There was nothing funny about him.

The only door to the room opened. The woman who had introduced herself as Detective Carson walked in with two steaming paper cups in hand. She had the same black police jacket as the other officers, but underneath she wore a blouse and rugged jeans. The tight auburn curls of her hair were tied back in a band, and her sharp, just-tan face was locked in a stern look.

She set one of the cups down on the metal table next to Jake, the door closing behind her. "Coffee?"

"No thanks," he said, feigning nonchalance. He'd tried to get a look at the hallway outside, but the door opened inward and blocked his view. "Hate the taste, plus it makes my stomach feel like it's on fire." He fidgeted with the steel cuffs, rubbing where they slid over his wrists. "So let me guess, he's the bad cop, you're the good cop?"

Jake wanted to think he saw some flash of chagrin cross the detective's expression, but if he was being honest she had an _incredible_ poker face. She sipped her own cup, savoring the black brew with a contented sigh. "You'll get used to it."

"The handcuffs?"

"The taste," she said. "It's an acquired thing with coffee. You might not like it yet, but you will after college. Or when you have a nine-to-five." She took another drink, this time draining half the cup. "So," she said, meeting his gaze with intent, dark eyes, "you ready to talk?"

"About what? I don't even know what I did!"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Lady, I don't know who you are or what you think you're doing, but I've got rights. Y'all still owe me a phone-call and a lawyer!"

The burly officer was still glowering at Jake. If it weren't for the subtle rise and fall of his chest, Jake would have thought him a statue. The detective, meanwhile, had taken to again staring at her coffee. She swirled around the contents of the cup, leaning against the wall with one arm folded. "That's not gonna happen," she said.

Jake sputtered, waving his hands with as much exasperation as the foot-long chains allowed. "Why not?! You know you can't just go around snatchin' people off the street, right? Just wait until the news hears about this - arresting college students for no reason, sticking them in cars with blacked out windows, this is straight up LAPD harassment!"

'Glasses' actually grunted with subdued anger, a few of his teeth visible between thick lips. It was the first sound he'd made all afternoon. Jake leaned away, feeling like he'd just poked a sleeping bear.

The detective sighed and set her cup on the table. "I can take it from here."

The officer grunted again and kicked back his chair with a teeth-clenching screech of metal. He turned and stomped out of the room, having to duck his head as he opened the door and left. The room instantly seemed a great deal more spacious with him gone.

The detective waited for the door to shut before walking around the table and taking the man's seat for her own. Jake shuffled in his chair. "What's his deal?"

Once again, she remained impeccably impassive. "Loyalty - too much of it, that is. Turns out some people don't like it when you insult their institutions." She tapped a finger against her lips, studying him. "It's strange. I can't really figure you out."

"Does that mean I get my phone call?"

The detective reached into her large jacket and pulled out a manila envelope. "Most people would've been at least a _little_ rattled after an hour alone with any cop, let alone Malone. But not you. That says a lot." She undid the clasps and opened her folder, removing a stack of glossy papers. "And I get the sense that you're not going to slip up and talk, so let's cut to the chase. You tell me what you know about these," she dropped the stack in front of Jake, "and I'll give you your phone call. Deal?"

Jake gave no signal of agreement, but he was curious nonetheless. He reached for the stack and turned them over. They were photographs, dozens of them with different lighting and backgrounds. Each was unique in most ways but one.

They were all photos of the American Dragon.

Jake felt himself tense. The first was taken from a high-rise, a green and black image showing the outline of Jake flying past just outside - a night vision camera, that's what it was. He flipped to the next in the pile, a zoomed in photo of him perched atop an apartment building looking out over the Bronx. He flipped it again, this time finding a crystal-clear picture of him flying just out into the open from a subway tunnel. One photo after another, each was a disturbingly clear example of his existence. They were nothing like the blurred and grainy footage he'd seen only a week ago.

"Well?"

The detective's voice shocked Jake back to reality. He concentrated on forcing his expression back to neutrality. He'd lost focus - had his reaction been suspicious? "The Manhattan Angel? It's just an urban legend from New York. You know, tabloid stuff." Jake pushed the incriminating photos back to her side of the table. Anyone within a hundred miles of Manhattan would have been able to make that much of a connection. "I haven't seen anything like those before. What are they, CGI or something?"

His captor watched him for a long while. She seemed to be waiting for something, until she nodded to herself and took the stack back. "CGI, hmm," she muttered, digging through the photos and pulling one out. She held it out for him to see. "Tell me, Mr. Long. Does this look familiar?"

It was another picture of him. This time he was gliding up beneath a large steel bridge with a plump, blue-clad man under one arm and a lump of gray fur beneath the other. It was the day he'd caught the NYPD officer mid-air, of course he remembered it. But ought he admit as much? Every news channel had reported on it for days, nearly everyone in the city had heard about it. Even so… "That looks like the Manhattan Bridge, and the...flying thing looks like it's carrying something."

"Oh go on, say it," the detective said, grinning. "A _dragon_ , right? At least, that's what I think it looks like. Crazy, sure, but you have to admit the resemblance is pretty close."

Jake's pulse quickened. "Sure, I guess."

She set the photo down and pointed at the officer in Jake's arms. "I'm sure you must have heard about it. Officer Collins here stops for a smoke along the side of the bridge and accidentally falls over. But instead of hitting the water, this _dragon_ shows up out of nowhere and grabs him right out of the sky. Then, it leaves Collins in an underground service shaft and the traumatized officer can't remember a damn thing." She leaned back in her chair and gave Jake a surprisingly whimsical look. "Pretty crazy, huh?"

Jake didn't know how he was supposed to react. "Yeah," he half-laughed, mirroring her slouch. "Crazy stuff."

Once again, the detective seemed to chew on something for a moment. "Well how about this," she said, reaching into the pocket of her jeans. "Did you know that NYPD officers are required to wear body cameras?"

"No," Jake answered. This time, truthfully.

Detective Carson pulled her hand back, now holding a smartphone. She set the device on the table and started tapping through menus on its screen. "I'm not surprised. They've only been using them for a few months - in fact they started _one week_ before the bridge incident. Some people might call it sheer luck, but I like to think of it as serendipity."

She spun her phone around and tapped it once. A video began to play, though all it showed was a view of distant water bouncing around in a blur. A couple times a flailing limb would appear and then vanish just as quickly. The only sound that came through was the officer's wild yelling alongside the passing wind and soft, rhythmic beats against the air. In seconds, the video was thrown into darkness. The officer's yells now echoed off walls, amplified.

The rush of incomprehensible sounds went on in darkness for a few seconds longer. Jake scoffed, "So what? You can't even see anything."

"Ah ah," urged the detective, wagging her finger. She pointed down at the phone with an intent look. "It's just getting to the good part."

More shouting, more rustling of wind, then nothing. For a moment the only sound was the officer gasping for air, then the video finally showed the smallest glimmer of light. It came from above, which Jake knew to be the entrance to the service hatch. He couldn't look away from the screen. It was barely any light at all, not nearly enough for…

" _W-who are you? Where am I? Wha...where did that_ th-thing _go?_ "

" _Easy there, big guy. You just fell off a bridge._ "

It was his voice. _It was his voice_. There was no way to deny it - no, he _had_ to. Jake calmed himself, making a conscious effort not to look surprised. People sounded alike all the time after all. It was a coincidence, nothing more.

But wait - his arm came into view, holding a vial. The hand by itself wasn't that incriminating, but he could see the red sleeve of his jacket too - the same one he almost always wore. The same one he wore this very moment. Impulse made him try to pull his hands off of the table, only to have his handcuffs come taught against the table with a damning _clink_.

" _Oh Christ...that's awful - the hell are kids drinking these days?!_ "

" _Not what you were expecting, huh?_ " The camera's angle shifted as the officer got to his feet with Jake's help. The video showed even more of the jacket now, just barely visible in the scant light. " _That was a Memory Potion, not booze._ _It'll make you forget everything magical you've seen over the past day or two, and don't worry, it's completely safe. I've given it to tons of people, no wack side effects_."

The more he heard, the worse Jake's panic became. A stray photograph, small clips of sound, he'd dodged evidence before. But this, an entire _video_ …

Energy fluttered to life in Jake's chest. The core of his flame was reacting to the stress, teasing out where it could like a ball of fire searching for air. Noticing this only made Jake's anxiety more apparent. He forced it down with sheer will. This was no time for panic. Jake had to be calculating, rational.

" _-wait, kid!_ "

" _Not a kid!_ "

The video shook as the officer turned toward the pitch-black subway tunnel. Jake's blurred and shadowed form turned the corner, and soon after there was a flash of soft orange light. Then, nothing. The video continued for a few seconds longer, showing only darkness as the officer deliberated between following or climbing out of the service shaft.

Detective Carson tapped the phone to pause the video and dragged the timer back across the screen. She stopped where Jake's arm could be seen in the light, holding the small glass vial. "I like your sense of style," she commented. "But then again, I'm a sucker for consistency."

Only now did Jake notice, the spot on her jacket above the emblem where a name should have been embroidered was empty. "You're not LAPD. Who are you?"

"A voice is easy to match, but only if you have a suspect and a sample. Do you know how many young men between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one there are in the New York metropolitan area?" She paused, as if expecting him to answer. "It's a lot. Not to mention we were catching these photos in every single borough. We even got a couple in Jersey."

Jake matched her flat affect. "And who's 'we'?"

The detective took her phone and tucked it back into her pocket. "So I had an idea - let's stir the pot," she continued. "We took our photos, blurred them, and gave 'em to the press. Just a trickle, one at a time to see if we could get a reaction. And guess what? The _dragon_ disappeared five days ago - and so did you. Impressive, really. I almost thought your debit card was stolen when we got a hit for a textbook store in _Los Angeles_. Care to explain how you made it clear across the country in a matter of hours without spending a dime? No plane tickets, no rental cars. Just _bam_ ," she snapped her fingers, "like magic."

Jake's chi surged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then tell me something you do know." She got to her feet and leaned forward over the table, her eyes locked with his. "Where's the Manhattan Angel and what brings it to the City of Angels?"

She wouldn't be persuaded. Jake was certain, no degree of diplomacy or denial was going to save him now. If it came to it, and he feared it had, he knew what he had to do. The cuffs would only take a second to deal with, but the detective and the other officers were another story. There was no telling how far this went, whatever _this_ was. Untold numbers of leaks would need to be patched, minds wiped, photos burned. It would be the biggest cover up of his life, but he couldn't get it done on his own. Everything hinged on him getting help.

This was a matter of magical security. It didn't matter that his instincts urged him to be cautious. Jake had no choice.

He had to escape.

His eyes closed. Jake focused on his arms and his chi answered without hesitation. The heat surged out-

Something smacked on the table. Jake's chi snapped back to his chest like a rubber band, just before the fire could burst from his skin. His eyes startled open, finding the detective reaching toward him. Her hand held a device flat against the table. It was his phone.

"One call," she said.

Jake looked from her to the phone and back. "I'm not saying anything."

"I know," she sighed, looking more tired now. She picked up Jake's untouched cup of coffee and moved to lean against the wall with the mirror. A sip brought a grimace to her face. "Ugh, cold."

He didn't know what to do. The phone was definitely his, at least it looked exactly the same. But was it a trick or just part of the detective's routine? They would probably be able to track whoever he called, so he had to be careful. The better question was who did they expect him to call?

Jake picked up the phone and unlocked it, careful to conceal the screen from the detective's eyes. A few motions brought up his address book and he flicked through the names. So many of the entries were magical creatures, and only now did he realize how dangerous it was leaving all their information on one device. Hopefully his captors hadn't been able to access it.

He found the listing for his mom. It was the obvious choice, who else would a teenager under arrest call? Yet he couldn't get himself to dial her number. The button was right in front of him, only a tap of his thumb away, but he just couldn't do it. Some force held him back, a feeling that he couldn't quite describe. Maybe shame - no, remorse? Over what?

The phone came to life, ringing and buzzing with vigor. Jake nearly dropped it in surprise, only to have his heart race when he saw the caller ID. It was Fu Dog.

Jake looked at the detective. She watched with mild interest, nodding her head toward the ringing phone. "That counts. Put it on speaker."

Reluctantly, Jake tapped the screen once to answer and again for the speaker. He set it down on the table between his cuffed hands. "Fu?"

" _Kid! Where the heck are you? I've been looking all over for you!_ "

"Hold up a sec-"

" _You're gonna be late! And what's all this I heard about Rose_ -"

"Can it Fu! I'm not alone!"

The Shar Pei's voice cut off. " _Say what?_ "

The detective called out from her place against the wall, acting as though she were barely interested. "Hello there. My name is Detective Hanna Carson. May I ask who this is?"

Fu didn't answer right away. A sort of crunching sound came from the phone, followed by loud panting and a repeating _click-clack_ like nails on cement. After a moment the sounds stopped and Fu's voice returned, fatigued. " _Where are you kid?_ "

Jake looked up at the detective, who gave no answer. "I don't know."

" _What do you mean you don't know? What's going on? Did you get yourself into some kind of-_ "

"EXCON 5, Fu."

There was a gasp from the other end of the line, and then a crash like the phone had hit the ground. They listened to the sounds of distant chatter and ringing phones for a moment longer. Then the call cut out.

The detective took a last, long drag of her cold coffee and knocked once on the mirror behind her. "What's EXCON 5?"

Jake didn't look at her. His eyes were fixed on the now dark screen of his phone. He'd warned Fu, given the signal, but what good would it do? Odds of there being a rescue were slim, no one even knew where he was to begin with. Did Jake wait and see if help was coming or make his escape while he still had the chance? He glanced at the camera in the ceiling corner - the blinking red light felt far more restraining than the metal on his wrists.

Two knocks answered from the other side of the mirror. Detective Carson smiled. "Thought so - downtown LA. That's where your call came from, probably around that same tunnel you keep going to." She sat back down at the table and took Jake's phone back. "Want to talk about it?"

He didn't answer.

"Is that where _Rose_ is?"

Jake groaned out loud and slumped in his chair. He couldn't help it. "I really hope not."

"And why is that?"

"Look, I'm probably having the worst day of life right now and that's the _last_ thing I want to even think about. Drop it."

The detective raised an eyebrow. She had that look of intense thought again, the one that made Jake feel like he was being dissected. Eventually she shrugged. "Alright, we can move on. I wasn't going to bring up your family yet - the firm your dad works at, your mom's catering service, that star pupil of a sister you have - but if you insist…"

Her words hit their mark. Chi churned in Jake's chest again, though not erratic and impulsive like before. Now it seethed, roiling with a dangerous heat that burned up through his throat. It took a great deal of focus for Jake to choke it back down. He glared at the woman, but reason helped keep him calm. Time, all he had to do now was buy time.

He sighed, hoping the detective didn't notice the wisp of steam trailing from his mouth. "She's my ex."

Carson leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. Her pensive look was slowly replaced with a grin, and then she started chuckling to herself. "Your ex?"

Jake flustered, "Well...yeah! From, like, eighth grade…"

"Middle-school?" Her grin only grew more wide and irritating. "Seriously?"

"Forget this! I'm not talkin' if you're just gonna sit over there laughing all day!"

The laughter faded, but she didn't stop grinning. They sat in silence for a minute or so while the detective had another of her silent, thoughtful moments. "Okay, fine. Your ex. So, what'd you do?"

Jake dropped his head forward and sighed. "What?"

"You seem pretty beat up about something, which means she's the one who broke it off, right? So, what'd you do? Forget an anniversary? Cheat on her?"

"What? No!" Jake's arms snapped taught against the chains again as he tried to wave his arms. The skin below the cuffs was raw and starting to ache. He stared at the marks encircling his wrists, no doubt already forming bruises. "I don't know what happened. She just stopped talking to me. Just like that."

"Not _just like that_ ," said the detective. "Take it from me, you did something."

"So you're a detective _and_ a love guru? Any more great advice while you're at it?"

"Sure - get over it. I don't know who Rose is or what she's like, but life's too short to waste pining over something that happened years ago. There are plenty of fish in the sea."

Jake slumped a little further onto the table. "Not like her."

Neither of them spoke for a while. The silence was becoming uncomfortable when the detective shook her head. She started to laugh again, though this was different from before. It felt less sincere. "I really don't get you. I _hate_ it when that happens."

"I thought you knew everything about me."

"So did I. You seem like an alright kid, but there's something missing. You just don't make sense." She leaned back, running a hand through the curls of her hair and breathing a heavy sigh. "Hopefully your friends will be more helpful in filling in the gaps."

Jake's stomach tugged further toward the floor. "My friends?"

"We only released the pictures of the red dragon, but you really didn't think we missed the _three other dragons_ flying around New York, did you?"

His hands clenched and unclenched. Fu was on the way. He knew it in his gut, he just _knew_ it. Jake just had to stall long enough and then they'd be able to fix everything. Patience was what he needed. Patience.

The detective clasped her hands over the table. "Someone's probably coming right now, so we'll start with them. If that doesn't work, we'll find your roommates. Then your highschool friends, your neighbors - hell, I'll track down your _camp counselors_ if I have to." Absolute confidence emanated from her as she stared him down, unflinching. "I'll be blunt, Mr. Long. Something's going on and it's putting innocent lives at risk. I don't know what it is, but it's obvious to me that you're a part of it. No bargains, no connections, no amount of resources on your end is going to keep me from putting this to rest.

"But we don't have to be enemies. Talk to me _right now_ , sitting at _this table_. Otherwise, I'll find someone who will."

Jake's hand reached toward his necklace.

The camera light blinked off.

Jake caught the subtle change from the corner of his eye. He watched the corner of the ceiling, waiting for it to turn back on, to move, to do anything. It may have looked suspicious, or perhaps the detective thought he was caving under the pressure. In truth it didn't matter. Jake couldn't tear his eyes away from the lifeless machine.

Seconds passed, one after the other. Nothing happened.

Fu Dog.

"It's a shame," said the detective, rising from her seat and heading for the door. "Get comfortable, you're going to be here for a while."

"I'm the dragon."

She froze mid step, but didn't immediately turn around. "What was that?"

Jake looked back to the camera. The device, as far as he could tell, remained lifeless. "I'm the dragon, the Manhattan Angel," he repeated. "And the other dragons are my friends, like you said."

The detective turned, slowly, and squinted at him. "You're the Manhattan Angel," she parroted. "So what is it? A drone? A piloted flight suit?"

"No, it's - _I'm_ the dragon. A real, living, fire-breathing dragon."

She folded her arms, her curiosity instantly shifting to anger. "That's really the best you can do? Because you're a tail and a pair of wings short."

A minute, Jake only needed to distract her for a minute longer until Fu could find them. "What if I told you it was magic? All of it? That magic and magical creatures were real?"

The detective literally chewed on the suggestion, her jaw gnawing back and forth as she likely considered the limits of her patience. "Magic dragons?"

"Magic dragons."

She pinched her eyes, a habit Jake knew well from his own mother. "Alright, I'll play along. Who's this Fu person?"

"He's my animal guardian, he kind of looks out for me."

"And what's EXCON 5?"

"It's code, for exposure of magic to humans. The higher the number, the worse it is - five is as bad as it gets."

"And Rose?"

"You've really gotta stop bringing her up, lady," snapped Jake. Her impetuous stare didn't falter. He groaned, "I already told you, she's my ex!"

The detective started tapping a finger against her cheek, one arm still holding the other. "Who's funding you and your friends?"

"Uh...what?"

"Is it Russia? China? A Middle Eastern military?"

Jake showed the palms of his hands. "Woah, woah, woah...you think I'm some kind of spy or something?"

"Spy, terrorist, radical, whatever you'd like to call it."

"Seriously? My old man's from _Ohio_."

Rapid knocking came from the other side of the mirror. The detective didn't seem to notice it, deep in thought as she was with an uncertain frown. "You didn't sound this convincing before," she mumbled.

The door swung open. Jake was ready with his chi. He got to his feet, the energy streaking out-

Two men in sleek black suits with shades and ear-mics entered the room. Jake's chi snapped back into his chest at the sight of the strangers. Their coats were completely featureless, sporting no badges or ID of any kind. All Jake could make out were slight bulges at their sides that raised hairs over his skin.

One approached the detective. "Detective Carson, stand down."

She glared at both of them, perplexed. "Who are you? Who said you could interrupt my interrogation?"

"That's classified mam," said the other, who made his way to Jake's side of the table. He reached out and clasped Jake beneath his arm. "This investigation is no longer your concern."

His partner stood beside the detective, blocking the way between her and the door. "We'll be taking things from here."

"Over my dead body!" she fired back. "This is my case! You can't just come in here and steal my prime suspect!"

The man beside Jake pulled a small key from his pocket and undid the cuffs tying him to the table. He just as soon replaced them with a pair of his own, however, yanking Jake to his feet and cinching his wrists together behind his back. Pain shot up his arms from the tighter restrains. "Hey, take it easy!"

He guided Jake around the table and toward the door. "This will go better for everyone if you comply."

Detective Carson reached after Jake as they passed out of the room. She tried to step around the other man. "Hold it right-"

The stranger blocking her deftly threw her torso toward the table, pinning her face-down against the metal and yanking her outstretched arm behind her back in an unnatural twist. She cried out in pain, a shocked grimace being the last thing Jake saw as he was led into the office space outside.

"What was that for?!" he yelled over his shoulder. His new escort forced him around, the two of them walking past the two-way mirror and rows of cubicles and desks nearby. Most of them were manned by officers and other staff, all watching with reserved, silent interest. None of them moved to help Jake or Detective Collins. Even the detective's partner, Malone, stood motionless off to the side. "Yo!" he called aloud, "Someone go get that psycho off her!"

There was no response, and Jake wasn't sure why he cared in the first place, but as it happened no help was needed. The second man appeared from the interrogation room and joined them. He grabbed Jake by his other arm and together the two lead him further through the office. Only now did Jake appreciate their impressive builds and height. They practically lifted Jake off of his feet as they went, nullifying what little resistance he'd been able to create.

Still, no one intervened. Jake only had seconds to act. His gut still urged him to wait, yet his chi begged him to fight. Kicking at thin air wasn't going to save him. He had to choose. Choose, choose-

Muffled shouts and screams came from further down the hallway ahead, behind a set of double doors. The two men holding Jake stopped and watched the doorway. One pulled a cuff close to his mouth, whispering, "Standby, possible-"

Ragged breathing and charging footsteps sounded from behind them. Jake couldn't turn far enough to look, but he recognized the voice of Detective Carson. "Let go of that boy!"

The double doors ahead flung open, exposing the office to the full commotion coming from the other side. In the doorway appeared Fu Dog, standing on his hind legs and looking around frantically until he spotted Jake. "KID!"

" _DRAGON UP!_ "

His chi erupted forth, almost relieved to finally be released. Jake landed in wide-set stance, scales and wings appearing in the blink of an eye, the handcuffs pinning his wrists behind his back exploding free of his larger arms into metal bits. The force of the transformation knocked the two men holding Jake aside, both gaping and reaching toward their hips. Jake, faster than they, grabbed one by the arm and hurled him into the other. Both slammed into the wall with a loud _CRACK_ , leaving a crater in the plaster and collapsing to the floor.

He turned and-

 _Flit-Flit_

Jake looked down. Two relatively tiny metal darts on wires had tried sticking into his chest. One had bounced off entirely while the other just barely clung on, wedged beneath a scale. There was a clicking sound but Jake only felt a slight tickle. He had been lucky - another inch to the side and it would have scored the soft spot in his armor that still had yet to grow a new scale.

At the other end of the wires connected to the prongs was Detective Carson. She stood gaping and wide-eyed a foot away, holding a spent, ineffective taser gun with both hands. A fresh, angry welt covered one eye where she'd hit the interrogation table, but no amount of swelling could mask her profound shock.

She breathed, " _Aw man_."

The rest of the staff in the office were just starting to react. The nearest woman, probably a secretary, screamed and flipped back in her chair to the ground. Those farthest in the back actually shuffled closer and stood on their toes to better see the commotion, as though it were some exhibition. Most of those in between, predictably, recoiled away from the new creature before them in a loud, jumbled panic. The more senior of the officers present, however, were easy to pick out. They were those few who held their ground and immediately fell into training, hands whipping to holsters and raising pistols high.

Their sights were on Jake, and Detective Carson was still stunned a foot away, immobile.

His movements were thoughtless. Jake twisted, his tail wrapping around the leg of the nearest desk and flinging it into the air while he grabbed the taser wires and yanked hard. Detective Carson's white-knuckled grip on the gun luckily held, dragging her along with the wires into Jake's grasp. He forced her down to the floor, careful not to crush her, and curled himself over her crumpled form.

A series of precise explosions - gunshots. Small bursts of pressure pressed into his ear drums. The shouting vanished as Jake huddled forward, his eyes shut tight. Something rammed into his flank, crashing over it like someone had just swung at him with a crowbar. He heard the sound of the desk he'd thrown finally crashing to the ground. Musical clangs of metal casings hitting the floor danced between the different sounds, clear notes in a chaotic symphony.

Then it grew quiet, one noise fading at a time. The air stilled, reeking of sulfur.

Jake opened his eyes, looking first at the space around him. Detective Carson was curled up tight beneath him, her hands to her ears but unharmed from what he could see. Two pinpoint holes decorated the walls beside Jake, and a quick glance at the broken desk showed that it had taken at least three shots itself. He stood and flinched, a sharp pain in his side shooting up his spine like lightning. Jake felt the spot and found the dangling remnants of a few cracked scales. The lack of blood was comforting, but the pain rocked him all the same.

"Mother-" Jake jerked around toward the office space, triggering another bone-wracking spasm. "Who just shot me?!"

One man stood, alone, behind a desk. The pistol held in his double grip was trembling, matching his alarmed expression. Yet as Jake watched, his crazed look drifted away. His clenched jaw relaxed, his eyelids drooped down, his trembling hands stilled. Finally, he collapsed forward onto the table. The pistol clattered to the ground.

The officer now looked much more at home, as limp and unmoving as the rest of his coworkers. Slouched onto the floor and bent awkwardly over chairs and cabinets, every person in the office was unconscious. From Jake's view, it could have been some strange, office-wide prank - or a bloodless massacre.

"What's happening?" he muttered.

"Kid!"

Fu Dog ran to his side, standing to sniff the cracked scales in Jake's side. He picked the fragments aside with a claw, his jowls retracting in the Shar Pei equivalent of a grimace. "You alright? I got here as fast as I could. Looks like they got you good."

Claw struck tender flesh, sending out more bolts of shooting pain. Hissing, Jake swatted his paw away. "Easy there! I'm fine!" he snapped. "The heck is going on with these people, though? I told you this was EXCON 5, you're supposed to bring back-up like gramps or the Council or something!"

"Oh I brought back-up," answered Fu, tugging at his collar and pointedly avoiding Jake's eyes. "But something tells me you're not gonna like it."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Well now, this is quite the role reversal!"

Another figure brushed through the doors at the far side of the office, curing Jake of what comfort Fu had given him. Clad in his usual crisp business suit, glossy shoes, and flowing cape with perfectly combed hair was Eli Pandarus. He gestured to the side with his wand as he entered. A procession of hunchbacked trolls followed him in and dispersed throughout the room, deftly stepping between the dozens of unconscious bodies. Their grace was surprising given their bulky forms.

It was enough to make Jake briefly forget the agony in his flank. "You're joking."

"Hey, I tried the old man but he wasn't picking up. It was either Pandarus or the Council," said Fu, his tone suggesting he was trying to convince himself as much as Jake.

"And what's he want?"

"I'm right here, you know," answered Pandarus, weaving between his wandering workers. "Is it so hard to believe that I'm simply doing what I think to be right?" He tapped two on the shoulders over their uniform jackets and pointed to the other end of the room. "Make sure to check the offices, we don't want to miss any wandering eyes."

The trolls nodded and shuffled off. Jake looked around at their number, watching as they picked up and straightened the limp bodies and fallen furniture. None of the humans responded in the slightest to being handled like rag dolls in a playset, arranged in believable, if stereotypical, positions. The creatures even managed to balance one man standing against a water cooler with cup in hand, albeit upside down.

"So you're the one that knocked them all out?" said Jake.

"And the reason you're not full of more holes. A simple sleeping spell until we can administer the memory potion, perfectly harmless." Pandarus turned to look down and past Jake. He drew his wand forward, "Ah, I seem to have missed one."

Jake turned to see Detective Carson changed from her curled position on the floor. She was now sitting up against the wall with her arms limp at her sides. Her eyes were watching them like searchlights, wide but steady with stunned uncertainty. One hand still clutched her used taser, reluctant to let the useless weapon and its tangling wires go.

"It's as easy as-"

"Hold up." Jake jutted his arm in front of Pandarus. He just as soon lowered it again, concerned that he'd appeared too aggressive to the wizard. "Let me talk to her for a bit. I've got some questions I wanna ask."

Pandarus grimaced at the order, but the sour expression was short-lived. "As you wish," he said, giving a mock bow before heading off toward his crew of trolls. The creatures had brought duffel bags and began opening them, taking out vials of familiar green sludge and dripping their unappealing contents into the mouths of the humans.

With the unreadable wizard distracted, Jake turned back to the detective and offered his paw. He said nothing, waiting for the woman to choose her next move. Keeping a calm composure was tough, though. The look she was giving him, one of primal fear - maybe even revulsion - was unsettling. It was the look he'd once feared seeing in his friends, or his own father.

Time passed as he waited and she stared, but eventually she moved. Slowly, her hand rose up to his. She let it hover in the air just before they met, hesitating a second longer before bringing skin to scale. Strangely, the contact seemed to soothe her. "You feel real."

Jake helped her to her feet, claws closing gently around the much smaller, more fragile human hand. It felt like lifting a child. "Wouldn't have been able to catch that tubby police officer if I wasn't."

"Or throw that desk," she said, staring at the bent and scarred surface. The trolls, having found the many bullet holes and bent legs, leaned it against the nearest divider and scattered stray papers over the damage. "You weren't lying after all."

The detective's swollen face, even worse than before, drew Jake's attention. She wasn't bleeding, at least. "Are you okay?"

"In the sense you mean, yes," Carson said, regaining some of her poise. She got to work collecting the wires from her taser, winding them into a ball and detaching the spent cartridge from the gun. "And so are you, though you shouldn't be. You were shot. I tased you." She tossed the cartridge in a trashcan and returned the gun to her belt. "Sorry about that."

"Make it up to me and tell me who you _really_ are. FBI? CIA?"

A moment passed before she answered, "That's classified."

Jake's head drooped forward. "Yo, you know that guy with the over-the-top cape can make you talk if we have to. I've kind of got a running tab of favors with him, though, so do me a solid and just be straight with me."

" _Do you a solid_ , right," she chuckled, shaking her head. "I can't believe this is happening...Homeland Security."

Jake nodded over his shoulder to the two men in black suits still slumped against the wall, unmoving. "What about them?"

"No clue." The detective felt the furious welt on her face, wincing. "But I'd love to find out and return the favor."

Fu Dog, having spent the last several minutes sniffing over every inch of their bodies, walked up beside Jake. He stood on his hind legs and handed over a square of tight folded leather he'd been carrying in his mouth. "They both had a wallet. There's only a badge in 'em, though. No ID's, definitely no cash. Cheapskates."

Jake flipped the wallet open. As Fu had said, the inside held only a typical shield-shaped badge. The emblem punched into it was new to Jake, a simple logo of five interweaving, outward facing triangles arranged in a circle with an eye at the center. Below it were three letters. "S-C-A? _Scah?_ What's that mean?"

"Beats me." Fu walked back to the men and dug his face in beneath one's coat, apparently working at something trapped at his side.

"That dog is talking," said the detective, not to anyone in particular. Jake made no comment. She wasn't wrong.

As he returned, Jake could see what Fu Dog had been struggling with - a pistol. "The only other thing they had besides the radios was these. The weird thing," he flicked a tab on the side of the gun and caught a magazine as it fell out of the grip, "is what they're packing. They're darts, not bullets."

Jake took the magazine and looked inside at the column of small, compact cylinders with bright feathers attached. "Probably tranquilizers. This is starting to freak me out, Fu."

"You and me both kid. I'll see what I can dig up, there's a couple people I can think of that might know something about this."

Suddenly, energy buzzed through the air like electricity. Jake reflexively looked to the taser holstered at Carson's hip, until a sphere of crackling green light appeared at the center of the office in a flash. The swirling orb collapsed, revealing another pair of trolls. These looked strangely like walking marshmallows, however, dressed in excessive padding with a large cage in each hand. Within the metal contraptions riled at least a dozen tiny infantile creatures, rambunctious things with thin bodies, flopping pointed ears, and large, beady eyes. Amidst the creatures, obscured by their frames, was Nigel Thrall.

"There you are, right on time," called Pandarus, already gesturing commands to the new arrivals. "Start there, there, and there. I want as clean a sweep as they come - photos, emails, any and all recently connected servers we can trace. Leave no evidence behind, and _please_ keep them away from any copiers."

"Trained gremlins," huffed Fu. "Now I've seen everything. Ten biscuits says this goes downhill."

The two trolls hesitated, but obeyed. They opened their cages and promptly shrunk away, guarding themselves from the chaos of the rampaging gremlins. The devilish creatures vaulted throughout the office, each scrabbling to find the nearest computer and proceeding to type away a blur of commands and keystrokes. A commotion started from the far side of the office where two gremlins were wrestling in a mass of limbs over a smoking, sparking machine. Pandarus groaned and briskly headed over, mumbling to himself as he went.

Jake watched as Nigel joined in attempting to control the commotion. Pointedly avoiding the young sorcerer's gaze, he turned back to the detective with new scrutiny. "You really don't know who these guys are?" he said, claw jerked back to the slouching unknown agents. "You're _sure_ about that?"

Carson perked an eyebrow at him. "Don't believe me?"

"Should I?"

She reached to her hip and yanked what looked like a walkie-talkie free of her belt. A twist of a dial brought it to life with the sound of static, and another _click_ silenced the device as she held it to her mouth. "All units, hold position until," she glanced at her watch, "nineteen-hundred hours, then return to the precinct. I got what I came for."

She released her finger. The returned static was soon punctuated by a distorted voice, " _Unit Three reporting, confirm we're scrapping the op'?_ "

Another _click_. "Confirmed. Thank you all for your help." Another twist stole the life from the radio, and the detective hooked it back on her belt.

Jake shrugged. "What was that about?"

"That was me taking care of the twenty officers stationed at blocks around the precinct waiting to arrest anyone that came to help you - or to catch you if you somehow escaped. Didn't count on you being able to...what, _teleport?_ " She folded her arms again. "You're welcome."

"Huh." Jake nodded. "Alright then. Who else knows? You know, the photos, the recording…"

"No one," she answered.

"Seriously?" interjected Fu. "You did this all on your own? No help from anyone here or at Homeland? You'll have to excuse me if I find that _farfetched_."

The detective sighed, obvious fatigue fracturing her stoicism. "It's a long story. Suffice it to say that I was the only one crazy enough to pursue this. The higher-ups wouldn't hear any of it." She reached into her jacket and pulled out Jake's phone. Offering it to him, she said, "I didn't see anything on it, and I don't want to. This," she waved at the still working gaggle of trolls and goblins, "whatever _this_ is, is clearly over my head. The rest of your belongings are at the front with evidence. Just...grab your stuff and get out of here."

Jake reached for the phone, gently pulling on the warmth still permeating him as he moved. His transformations, though normally rushed and eruptive, didn't have to be so. The flames appeared over his arm and eased backwards, slowly consuming the claws, scales, and wings in a smooth wave until only a teenage boy remained. "Thanks," he said, tugging the device free of her tightened grip.

She was staring again, now more so intrigued than disturbed. "Who are you?"

Their time was waning. The workspace marginally reassembled, the trolls had taken to collecting their empty glass vials, snatching documents, and corralling the gremlins back into their cages. Without having to ask, Jake reached out and took the vial of green substance Fu had already retrieved from the folds of his skin.

"One messed up dream," he said. "You know the drill."

Carson took the vial and nodded. She eased out the stopper, a wisp of green vapored trailed after her hand. Grimacing at the concoction, she sighed, "No _whack side effects_ , right?"

"Just one more question," said Jake, his hand held over the top of the smoking vial. "Why'd you give me the phone call?"

"I told you, we traced it," she said. "Evidence is leverage."

"C'mon," Jake griped. "Be straight with me."

Carson shrugged. "It's part of the interrogation technique. Build a rapport, a little give and take to make you feel more comfortable and open up."

"And?" he pressed. "That's really it?"

Her mouth opened to argue, but she paused. She looked to the side, chewing over the unsaid words before grudgingly admitting, "Gut feeling, I guess. You reminded me of someone I used to know. Good kid."

"Wrap it up everyone! We're done here!" shouted Pandarus amidst the trolls. He turned to make his way back toward Jake and the others, carefully stepping through the life-size diorama they'd arranged.

"I'm not sure which would be harder to deal with, today or tomorrow." She raised the vial to her lips. "Too bad I won't have more of this stuff for later."

Her head tilted back, but Jake snatched the vial from her fingers in a flash before she could drink it. He downed the potion with a snap and shoved the vial back into her hands. It almost felt like the slime was trying to wriggle free as he choked it down, not to mention the taste of socks and rotten bananas. The unpleasantness of it eclipsed Carson's surprise.

Fu put a paw on his knee. "Uh, kid?"

"Act confused - _ugh_." Jake's tongue ejected from his mouth in a gag. It was the first time he'd tasted the concoction and hopefully the last; the wretchedness of it was startling. He almost wished the potion would work on him if only to remove the memory of that appalling taste. Unable to quite open his eyes yet, he settled for poking in what he hoped was the detective's general direction. "Like that cop in the video. You don't remember anything, got it?"

"I believe our work here is done. Consider this crisis averted." Pandarus joined their group, though Jake only knew by the sound of his voice. He forced his eyes open to look at the wizard, who didn't seem to notice his pained reaction. Pandarus appraised the empty vial in the detective's hand and smiled at her. "And how are you doing, my dear?"

Her eyes darted between Pandarus and Jake before she uncertainly replied, "I, uh...don't know?"

"Marvelous. Well, Jake my boy, it's time we take our leave. And before you say anything," he started, cutting off Jake with a point of his finger and a firm stare, "No, I don't expect anything in return. These mishaps aren't actually all that uncommon these days. I only ask that you-"

"-keep this in mind." Jake nodded and, against every vivid memory and hateful feeling burning defiant within him, held out his hand. "Thanks, Pandarus."

Lit from behind by the green light of building and collapsing magic as Nigel teleported away their rabble of workers, Pandarus smiled with pearly white teeth and shook his hand. The sight stood Jake's hair on end. "My pleasure. And if you _really_ do want to repay me, try to keep this from happening again. Though I'm sure you know there's really only one way to do that."

Jake frowned. "And what's that?"

"The _Vote_ ," he said, as if it were obvious. "Once the dragons finally decide on it, these troubles will be a thing of the past. And as they say, third time's the charm."

" _Hey, hey, hey!_ " railed Fu, stepping in front of Jake with a claw jabbed at the wizard. "Who told you about that? That's _World Dragon_ business and no one else's!"

"The Vote...right." Jake elbowed the Shar Pei. "What's the Vote again?"

"I'll tell you about it when we get to the Summit."

Somehow, beyond all expectations, there was still some adrenaline left in Jake. Enough at least to send his heart racing at the words. "THE SUMMIT! It started-"

"-about an hour ago, yeah." Fu shrugged, "Don't worry kid, we're already late. No use in freaking out no- _HUGH!_ "

Jake yanked Fu by the collar and sprinted toward the front of the precinct. Pandarus's voice chased them out as he himself vanished in a last eruption of neon static, "Until next time, American Dragon!"

" _Why_ ," gasped Fu Dog, " _does this feel familiar?_ "

Jake elbowed through the doors to the entrance lobby, then came to a screeching halt. He set Fu Dog down, taking note of how the people here too were unconscious and arranged in a variety of postures. "Find my stuff and pick the fastest way to the Isle of Draco. We're ditching this place."

"A _please_ would be nice," coughed Fu, rubbing at the folds of his neck. "And why do I gotta do everything?"

"Forgot something." About facing into the offices once more, Jake hurried back along the hallway, leaping over the still comatose mystery agents, to Carson's side. She called as he approached, "You gonna explain what all that was about?"

"A gut feeling," he said. "You've got my number, send me yours. Something tells me you might be a good person to know."

"Why? I'm closer to a desk jockey than a cop. What am I supposed to do?"

"Keep a secret." Jake shrugged. "I trust you - and no one will believe you now anyway."

"As if they did before," she said stone-faced.

"You know what I mean. Pretend like none of this never happened." Jake turned to jog back to Fu, calling over his shoulder, "And if I don't see you again, it was nice meeting you!"

The detective didn't answer. Out of the corner of his eye, though, Jake thought he saw her put her hands on the sides of her head and start to shuffle toward a counter with a half-filled, likely cold pot of coffee.

* * *

Up was down, his insides felt out, and the only pleasant thought in Jake's mind was at not having eaten in several hours. He should have been appreciative of the fact that Underdown happened to have enchanted elevators like those in Grand Central Station, but perspective was a hard thing to maintain within the ballistic contraption.

" _I'm sorry about the whole Pandarus thing!_ " Fu shouted over the grinding and squealing of metal. His voice shook and vibrated with the violent flapping of his skin folds. " _I found his card in your office and thought it was better than having the councilors on your back on our first week!_ "

" _It's cool!_ " Jake yelled back. Keeping his eyes open was both painful and nauseating, so he opted to answer loud and aimlessly instead. " _You saved my skin, I should be thanking you! And I shouldn't have been such a jerk about you staying in LA! I mean, everything worked out, right?!_ "

If Fu had some form of answer, their sudden launch across the elevator compartment interrupted it. The two of them ungracefully crashed against what had moments ago been the ceiling as their transportation came to a sudden, jarring stop. Jake landed against his injured flank and gasped as fresh burning pain flared to life. Though he'd suffered the wound in his dragon form, his two bodies were linked in a way he didn't fully understand. Cuts to his human skin still stung when he was the American Dragon, and the aches of training still burned when he tried to sleep as Jake Long. No doubt there was an angry bruise on his side, and he could feel the pressing pain from his broken dragon skin like some phantom force.

The doors slid open with a _ding_ , hot afternoon sunlight streaming into the cramped space. "Thank you for choosing-"

"We _get it_ , thank you." Jake lifted a limp and moaning Fu Dog from the floor and lurched out of the compartment, blinking away the irritatingly bright, salty air. Going from the dusk of downtown LA to this tropical vibrance added yet another layer of disorientation. Jake had to remind himself of the urgency of the situation. Switching to his dragon form in a flash of fire, he jumped into the air and flew out of the temple-like reception building with Fu tucked beneath his arm.

"How's it lookin' kid?" shouted Fu, his paws held tight over his eyes.

"Not sure." They came unto the still grand landscape of the Isle of Draco, bathed in early afternoon light beneath a clear sky. Though there were only a couple dragons visible in the distance among the different buildings, the signs of abundant activity were clear. Large canopies and tents now filled fields and swathes of land that were normally empty. Flags had been erected in every direction, most bearing the golden emblem of the Dragon Order, some instead flying the colors of various nations. Add in the pennants, stages, and banners scattered throughout, and the ancient residence of dragon-kind looked more like the grounds of some abandoned festival.

The annual Dragon Summit, it seemed, was already underway.

"Where'd everyone go?" Jake thought aloud.

"They're probably in the arena!" answered Fu. "The first thing they do is have the actual summit with the World Dragons! Let's try to slip in before someone sees us!"

Jake nodded and changed course, climbing toward the top of the island's central volcano. The dormant caldera at its center held a central field and surrounding stands used for ceremonies and meetings in years past. Before, however, Jake had been used to the abundant life of Summits past. Of course, it was to be expected - he was a day earlier this year than usual. Nearly every dragon on Earth would arrive tomorrow to train and meet, but today was reserved for World Dragons only. Lao Shi had been deliberately vague about the proceedings involved, so seeing what he'd been missing out on had always excited Jake.

That was before he'd inevitably arrived late and missed who knew how much of it.

Nervous, Jake picked up his pace. Yet he hadn't made it halfway toward the peak when the deep, rich ring of a gong reverberated through the air. On cue, dozens of dragons appeared over the lip of the caldera, flying off in different directions.

"Crap!" Jake beat his wings against the air in wide, forceful strokes. "Don't tell me we already missed everything!"

It wasn't long before they crested the peak. Lining the volcanic pit below were the tiers of colosseum-like stands in a broad circle. Dragons occupied the benches in a mix of reptilian and human forms, sitting or maneuvering between the seats in a general air of casual conversation. A rectangular stage had been set up on the central field, close to the end of the arena where the now-hidden Sanctum resided. Jake could see the five counselors seated there, also talking privately in their humanoid forms.

Jake scanned the crowd and soon found the blue robes, white hair, and short stature of his grandfather. The man appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, either meditating or, if Jake were unlucky, accumulating his ire for his student. Jake dove downward, swerving to avoid the dragons leisurely drifting around him, and landed gingerly on the stones beside his dragon master.

"You're late," Lao Shi said, eyes still closed. It was more a statement of fact than a reprimand.

"Sorry gramps." Jake set down Fu, who finally relaxed his paws. The Shar Pei slumped to the ground in an ill-appearing heap of fur. "It's a long story, but I swear I had a good reason!"

His grandfather removed a hand from where he rested them within his joined sleeves, a flip-phone help open in his grasp. He opened his aged eyes and looked sideways at Jake. "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with these messages I just received, would it?"

He pressed a button, and Fu's breathless voice came through the speaker. " _Pick up Lao Shi! Pick up, pick up, pick up! This is an emergency, Jake's in trouble, I'm talking EXCON 5! SOS! 911! PICK UP!_ "

Lao Shi pressed again. " _Okay seriously Lao Shi, this is important! The kid needs help and I really don't want to drag the council into this! We don't exactly have tons of time! Yell at us later if you want, just pick up the phone! PLEASE!_ "

And again. " _WHERE ARE YOU?!_ " came Fu's voice, now an octave higher. " _WE NEED YOU OLD MAN! JAKE NEEDS HELP, I'M ALL ALONE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, AND I'M LOSING IT! PICK UP, PICK UP, PICK-_ "

Another _beep_. " _Oh, hey there Lao Shi. It's me, Fu Dog. How are you? Listen, just go ahead and delete those other voicemails. Everything's good, we're good. I'm tracking down Jake right now and we'll be heading to the Summit in just a bit. Save us a seat! Heh, heh. Yeah. We're good._ "

Fu groaned from his place on the ground and rolled onto his back. "What? We all know I don't do so great under pressure!"

"Come to think of it, how did you-" Jake looked down at Fu and his exposed belly, and for the first time noticed the oddity. He was wearing the same red collar as always, but the old bronze ID tag had been replaced with a silver medallion about the size of a quarter. The two teardrop halves, one smooth and the other rough, sparked a sense of irritating deja vu.

Fu, reading his dark expression, followed his gaze to the medallion. "Oh. Yeah, about that." He half-heartedly chuckled, looked about searchingly, and then flung his paws up in surrender. "I tried talking the old man out of the whole _giving you a secret tracking charm_ thing, but he wouldn't listen! It's his fault, I swear!"

"You know, I feel like I should be angry about this," said Jake, and he meant it. The necessary indignation and pride, however, were distinctly lacking. Thinking on it, he was pretty sure he knew why. Flames slipped over Jake and stripped away his dragon body, which he suddenly felt uncomfortable in. "But you guys were right, like always. About Fu and the charm. You knew something was going to happen. I couldn't cut it."

"The only thing that I _knew_ ," said Lao Shi, "was that you are determined and strong, but that there might come a time when you would need help, just like every World Dragon."

"Or that you'd go missing at some house party," added Fu, throwing in a sheepish smile at Jake's glare.

Lao Shi's trailing white eyebrows perked up. "Though I'll admit one week was sooner than I anticipated. What happened, young one?"

Jake wasn't sure how best to answer that, but it was irrelevant. Before he had the chance to fumble his words, a heavy, firm hand clapped him on the shoulder from behind, the rock crushing grip making his arm go numb. He knew the owner instantly.

"Good to see you, American Dragon," came Natalya's voice. "You finally made it - are you alright?"

" _Peachy_ ," he wheezed, struggling to breathe through the renewed spasming pain in his side. "Just a little bruised, you know."

"Oh, let me help," a soothing voice replied.

A softer, slender hand slid over his side, radiating a gentle heat that passed straight through his clothing and permeated his flank. A soothing comfort instantly dissolved his pain, washing it away like dirt in a stream. Jake groaned with relief and turned to their company. "Thanks Sun, I needed that."

Haley's dragon master smiled. "My pleasure," she said, drawing back her hand and letting the visible aura of energy surrounding it fade away. Every dragon was different, but their idiosyncrasies went beyond the color of their scales or the shape of their wings. As creatures of magic, some dragons also possessed unique abilities aside from breathing fire and shape-shifting. Some could instead breathe ice or lightning, or in Sun's case project their chi as a restorative energy. "I'm glad you made it, Jake. We were starting to get worried."

"As if it matters, I didn't even get here until it was over." Jake sighed. "So much for seeing my first Summit."

"Over? If only," smirked Natalya. "You only missed the opening ceremonies. This is but a break before we continue for many more hours."

Sun sighed. "And I forgot to bring a cushion. _Again_."

As if to affirm their words, the gong, which Jake could now see was positioned on the stage below behind the Dragon Council, rang out once again as Councilor Omina struck it. The noise was renewed over and over again as it echoed within the caldera, running through the stands and calling the dragons back to their seats. Jake sat beside Lao Shi with Fu staying at his feet, Sun and Natalya sitting beside him.

"Hey, are you allowed to be here?" Jake whispered to Fu, the stands around them quickly filling and growing quiet. "I thought this was just for World Dragons?"

Fu waved him off, sitting on his heels to peak over the shoulders of those sitting in the row in front of them. "Yeah, but I'm special. Besides, who can say no to this face?"

"Let us resume." Councilor Kulde's voice boomed out from the stage below, drawing Jake's attention. The counselor stood in his ice-blue dragon form without any sort of microphone in front of him, so Jake wasn't quite sure what was amplifying his words. "Now that the welcoming pleasantries are taken care of, the first order of business is normally the annual review of grievances from our magical brethren. However," he paused and scanned along the rows of seats, "I understand that there are some who would like to make a proposal."

Across the stadium, someone, a blurry speck at Jake's distance, stood and was engulfed in a shroud of blue flames. In their place appeared a tall, slender yellow dragon. "Councilor Kulde!" he called, his voice now also amplified.

Jake started at the accent. "Hold up, is that-"

"Yes, Dragon Nerk?"

"I move that we first discuss the Vote of Commissary!"

Another person, to the right and about three sections of stands away, stood and transformed. "Seconded!"

Murmurs rose throughout the stands, miring the quiet air with a low din of noise. Off to Jake's side, Lao Shi sighed.

"It's just like last year," Sun murmured over the conversation.

Lao Shi grunted. "I fear this year may be worse."

"Oughta be good," Fu chuckled, digging around in his cavernous folds of skin. "Luckily I packed popcorn...unless I already ate it."

"Yo," Jake nudged Fu's back with his knee, "is this that Vote you were talking about before? Why's everyone getting so worked up?"

Fu turned but Lao Shi's answer came first. "The Vote of Commissary," he said, his words heavy and clear despite the growing commotion around them, "is to decide whether or not we reveal ourselves to the mortal world."

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	6. The Great Evanescence

**V**

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 **Chapter 6: The Great Evanescence**

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Susan Long turned off the sink faucet, fingers already starting to prune. She dried the dish in her hand and set it aside on a rack by several others. A sigh escaped her as she appreciated the empty basin - one problem solved, a dozen more on her mind.

"Haley! Are you finished packing for tomorrow?"

There was no answer. Susan waited a moment longer, eyes lingering on the oven timer, then turned and left the kitchen. She paused at the foot of the stairs with her hand on the bannister. "Haley?" she called again. "Are you-"

"I heard you!"

The tone stung, as usual. Annoyance, like Susan's presence alone was a burden. Despite how common it was becoming she had yet to become desensitized to it. She wasn't sure if she should feel good or bad about that.

A thumping noise followed and Haley appeared above with a small suitcase in hand. She climbed down the stairs, feet stomping just enough to be noticed but not so much to deserve the effort of reprimanding, and dropped the luggage on the floor by the front door. "Finished," she said shortly, returning promptly back up the stairs.

Susan watched her disappear around the corner above, wondering what was going through the mind of her teenage daughter. There had been countless similar moments like this with Jake in his high school years, but she'd always just assumed that there were some things about boys that a mother couldn't understand. Haley though? Susan had been in her shoes once. There was a time when she'd been a girl her age, worrying about school, boys, friends - so why couldn't she figure out what was going on with her?

Why did her daughter suddenly seem like a stranger?

The mystery topped her list of troubles, and Susan Long wasn't one to leave something unfinished. She had managed to keep up with the challenges of being a mother, wife, and business owner all these years; she wouldn't be daunted by a conversation with her own daughter.

Susan climbed the stairs and stopped outside the door to Haley's room. She knocked gently. "Mind if I come in?"

There was no answer.

Well, at least it wasn't a refusal. She turned the knob and eased the door open. Haley sat at her desk, staring intently at the screen of her computer with headphones on. It seemed the academic girl was studying as usual. Her lack of acknowledgement seemed forced to Susan, though, or perhaps that was just wishful thinking on her part.

"Sweetie?"

"What?" said Haley, not turning away from the screen.

So she _was_ listening. Susan stepped further into the room. "How are you?"

"Fine."

She nodded to the computer. "How's school going?"

"We don't start until next week - so, great I guess."

"Oh." Susan felt herself blushing. She forced herself to relax, taking the chance to sit on Haley's made, tight-sheeted bed. "So, what are you working on?"

Haley sighed, more heavily than was likely necessary. "Just getting a head start, since I've got nothing else to do. Do you want something? Because I'm kind of busy."

"Does there have to be a reason to talk?"

Haley glanced to the side at her.

Susan shrugged. "What about the Summit tomorrow? You must be excited about that!"

"Spending my last weekend of Summer break surrounded by sweating dragons with no sense of personal hygiene? Yeah, it'll be a life changing."

"Think of everyone you'll get to see, though! Jake, your grandfather, Gregory-"

Haley stood and slid the headphones off her head. "I'm going to head out for a bit." She reached beneath her computer monitor and tapped a button, turning the screen black. "I just remembered that I told Sun I'd run an errand for her before tomorrow."

Susan stood in the wake of her brisk exit from the room. "Errand? But dinner's going to be ready soon. When will you be back?"

Her voice answered from beyond the hallway corner, "Not sure. Maybe in a little bit, maybe not."

By the time Susan reached the top of the stairs, Haley was already halfway through the front door. "Be home before dark!" she called down. "And no flying in daylight!"

The shutting of the front door cut off her last few words. Susan wasn't all that worried for her daughter's safety, as odd as that may have seemed. After all, what threat was there that a dragon's scales and claws couldn't answer? Particularly for Haley, who had come into her dragon powers at a young age with astounding competence and comfort.

Was that the source of Haley's recent mood changes? It would make sense, in a way. Susan wouldn't have a point of reference for the girl's behavior given her own lack of powers. Yet Haley had been refining her abilities for years without incident. Why would her abilities only recently have such a drastic effect on her? Perhaps it was something to ask Lao Shi about when she had the time. Her father had always seemed to have a way when it came to her kids.

Susan liked to think it came down to his many years of practice. It was more comforting than the alternative - that the problem wasn't experience, or the children.

Resigned to keeping the point on her list a while longer, Susan made her way back to the kitchen. She busied herself with finishing her cooking before Jonathan came home from work. Her thoughts drifted thousands of miles away as she worked, wondering if her son was faring any better without her.

* * *

Some of the most peculiar aspects of the Isle of Draco, at least to Jake, were the human amenities filling it. For one thing, no one had ever explained to him how he managed to get cell service on the remote island. Then there was the cafeteria housed in one of the larger temples near the island's base that was suspiciously like that of his former high school. Even the bathroom where he now stood washing his hands held something of an oddity - plumbing. Modern pipes and facilities, of all things. The water pressure alone would be enough to make half of the apartments in Manhattan envious.

Not that Jake was complaining, of course. It just seemed strange when you took the time to think about it.

The door to the bathroom swung open. Jake watched through the reflection in the mirrors in front of him as Fred Nerk strolled in. The lanky ginger met his gaze and nodded. "There you are, Jakeroo. Was wondering where you'd gone off to."

"Just taking a break," said Jake. He hadn't really needed the bathroom, but sitting for hours in that open stadium took its toll. The constant bickering between dragons wasn't all that pleasant either. Still, he'd eventually have to stop washing his hands before he rubbed them raw and head back out.

Fred laughed from the urinal he'd taken up. "Pissin's a good a reason as any," he said over the spattering noise, his head turned sideways. "Not the party you were expecting, huh?"

"Not really, no." Jake turned off the faucet and dried his hands with a towel hanging from the wall. One hand drifted to massage the dull aching over his backside. Sun hadn't been kidding about those stone seats. "Doesn't help that I have no idea what anyone's talking about. Gramps never even told me about this whole _'Vote'_ thing until today."

"Not surprising." Urinal flushing, Fred zipped up his pants and walked to the sink beside him. "You may not have noticed," he said, turning on his faucet, "but all the dipsticks out there fighting the Vote are usually the old, gray haired, scaleless type." He raised a dripping hand toward Jake. "No offense to Lao Shi."

Jake shrugged. "It's so much to think about, _too_ much. All my life it's always been total secrecy, life or death. I never even thought about what it would be like if all magical creatures just came out into the open. But now all of a sudden we can? No joke, that's _insane!_ "

Fred glanced to the side at him.

" _Good_ insane," Jake clarified. "Or not. How should I know?"

"Just this morning I had to fly to Queensland and deal with another group of explorers coming 'cross a bunyip - nasty shapeshifting devils, live in rivers and tear folks limb from limb. Poor guys were too pissed to run, now they'll be lucky to live. And that's just the start of it." Fred ran his hands through the hanging towel, scowling. "But think if we could put out warnings, work with the government to keep them isolated. The bunyips keep to themselves where they like and no one has to see the colors of their own insides. Think of all the troubles we could solve," he snapped his fingers, "just like that."

"So why don't we?" asked Jake, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. "If following through with this Vote would help so much, then why haven't we?"

"We have," sighed Fred. "Twice."

Jake frowned. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me. I don't know the details, but the first time was a something like a thousand years ago and the second was a few hundred." He watched Jake's reaction, which must have been that of utter confusion because Fred's next motion was to smack his own forehead. "That's right, you said Lao Shi didn't tell you anything. Well, it goes like this. If the world doesn't react well to magical creatures, there's some ancient artifact that the Dragon Council uses to undo it. Wipes everyone's minds clean, kind of like a memory potion that works on the whole world at once. They call it the Great Evanescence."

"No way," muttered Jake. "Now _that's_ insane. If we've got something that can make that evasenent...evasesess…"

"Evanescence."

"Right, that - if we can do that, then forget these fools playing it safe. We can make the Vote happen! And if it doesn't work out, we just hit the reset button and _bam!_ Everybody wins, right?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Fred's demeanor was still that of solemnity, tapping the counter with a finger. "The Evanescence only fixes people's minds, erases what it can and cooks up excuses and explanations for what it can't. It doesn't reverse time or change the world physically. If the Vote ends up in magical creatures losing their homes, their families, or worse…"

Jake's shoulders sank. "That's on us."

Fred nodded, saying nothing for a moment. Then he pushed away from the counter and headed for the door. "Personally, I still think it's worth the risk. Things now are only getting worse, and it won't change unless we do something." He paused at the doorway and grinned back at Jake. "But first, we've gotta be louder than the dipsticks. See you back out there."

The door closed after him, and Jake was left alone. The solitude helped him think, to soak it all in.

The Vote of Commissary. They could reveal magic to the world, they could _really_ do it. Jake had let his more magical secrets slip with humans a few times before - unintentionally with Spud and Trixie, and his father out of necessity - but announcing it to the public as a whole was another thing entirely. It was impossible for him to imagine an event of such enormity. He couldn't even decide where to start.

Given the chance, would he do it? There was a chance it could improve the lives of countless magical creatures, there was no doubting that, yet it could all go south just as easily. How badly did he want to make the former come true? Would he be able to shoulder the guilt of the later? It was a daunting prospect, but he couldn't ignore the sense in Fred's words. Jake already knew how desperate conditions were for many of those in his own territory, given what he'd seen in his short time in LA. Would he sooner leave those he'd sworn to protect to their fate or gamble it on one potentially far, far worse?

He tried to think of the frustrated clients filling the Underdown DMC, the creatures of New York, the magical students at UCLA. What would they say?

Time was both what he needed most and had least of. Sensing he'd already spent too long away from the debate, Jake followed Fred out of the bathroom and into the corridor outside. He climbed up the short, upward slanting tunnel back to the arena, soon coming into the bright daylight and muggy air of the cluttered stands.

There was a dragon that Jake didn't recognize arguing hotly to the assembly, against the Vote from what he could surmise. Jake climbed through the tiers of seats as the dragon spoke and found his row, settling back into the empty spot between his grandfather and Sun. "What'd I miss?"

"A whole lotta nothin'," huffed Fu from the ground at their feet.

Sun looked ready to comment but was cut short as a new voice boomed into the air, "And what do you know of the plight faced by the sphinxes in my territory day in and day out?"

Far down below, Councilor Kulde rubbed the icy scales of his jagged brow. "Egyptian Dragon, please-"

"What _plight_ was that again?" the first dragon sneered from across the arena, her claw jabbing out at the opposite tier of stones seats. "Last time I checked, they weren't running out of sand dunes and gullible tourists any time soon! But by all means, let's undo millennia of secrecy for the feelings of a few fused feminine felines!"

Fire burst to life a couple tiers over. "Come now, every creature's wellbeing must be considered with a decision of this magnitude. And really? Do you always have to do the alliteration thing? Because no one's impressed."

"Scottish Dragon-"

Three more voices joined the argument in unison, drowning out Councilor Kulde's response. Even as the sound rose and reverberated into an unintelligible clamor, none of those speaking backed down. Instead, more dragons joined in one at a time until the sweltering afternoon air seemed to ripple in waves with the competing voices.

"Ugh, not again." Fu Dog writhed on the stone at their feet, pulling at the wrinkles around his head and deforming his face into a mess of fur and gums. "Can't we just get this over with so we can all go inside already?!"

What sounded like another dozen dragons entered the verbal tumult. Sun leaned closer and raised her voice. "You know how stubborn dragons tend to be, current argument notwithstanding!"

Fu growled and sat up, paws clamped to his ears. "What's taking them so long! Just hit the stupid thing already!"

As if answering Fu's wish, Councilor Andam, standing behind the other councilors below in his human form, approached the giant golden gong at the back of their stage. The ornament was like a small sun within the arena, a huge golden disc reflecting glaring light in every direction. Thick ropes held it suspended in the air, dangling in an intricately carved wooden frame. Colorful robe swaying, Councilor Andam raised an equally large wooden dowel with a cloth-tipped end, reared it back in a two-handed grip, and struck the gong.

A deep ringing tone boomed out and golden waves of bending light rippled throughout the caldera. The rings reached the stone tiers and enveloped their occupants, seeming to melt into stone and flesh. Flashes of light peppered the stands as those in dragon forms were ejected into their human bodies, each burst of fire matched by an amplified voice popping out of existence. The rest of those present had merely to tolerate their ears ringing unpleasantly from the suffocating melody as, one by one, they were all thrust into silence.

A low rumble of irritation was all that remained as the ringing dissipated. Councilor Kulde, who had transformed just before the gong was struck, resumed his slender dragon form on the stage below. "That's sixteen times, people," he sighed. "Sixteen times. Let's try and keep things cordial, if nothing else than for the sake of the two-thousand-year antique hanging behind me. Now then, would anyone else like to contribute before the Vote?"

A hush fell over the crowd. It wasn't hard to guess why - several hours spent sweating in the glaring sun was enough to leave even a dragon weak and lethargic. Then there was the relentless back and forth of the debate itself. Many of the arguments Jake heard were the same as Fred's - protecting creatures and mortals alike, working alongside humans, sharing knowledge, medicine, and technology. Yet they were hounded by fears that Jake couldn't ignore - the threat of mortals abusing magical creatures, the theft their powers and resources, the refusal to cooperate.

It felt like a choice too great for him, or even the whole of the Dragon Order, to make. Yet here they were.

"No one else?" repeated Kulde, tone lifting with relief. Again, no one answered. "Then we shall proceed with the Vote of Commissary. All those in favor of the vote, stand."

Heads swiveled in the crowd, searching. Only a moment passed before they all turned to the far stands where Fred stood, straight-backed and stern. A few others that Jake didn't recognize also stood directly beside him, upsetting the uniform crowd. They all looked to be in their twenties.

Sun hummed. "Four? I doubt that will be enough to-"

Another person rose two sections over, then two more in the seats just a few rows below them. Murmurs drifted through the stands as person after person stood, dotting the seats here and there. The more that stood, the more quickly others joined in. When the commotion finally slowed, it seemed nearly everyone who had argued for the vote was now standing.

"That's way more than last year," said Fu, trying and failing at counting on his paws. "There's gotta be a few dozen at least!"

"Out of hundreds," Lao Shi commented calmly. "It will not matter, they will not follow through."

Jake gritted his teeth and stood.

Several heads turned toward him, mirroring his own surprise. He couldn't remember making the decision, but he felt a strange certainty now that he was standing. Fu pawed at his leg, "Kid, what're you doin'?! Sit down before-"

"American Dragon?" Councilor Kulde called from below, confused. "It is customary for those answering the Vote to provide arguments. Would you like to say anything?"

The arena turned to him. The air seemed to grow twice as heavy, smothering him beneath the attention. Jake fidgeted, suddenly unable to make a coherent sound. "I, uh…"

Eyes stared at him, expectant.

The sudden pressure reminded Jake of battle, ironically helping him relax into his training. He rolled his shoulders, shook his head, and cleared his throat. His chi, already stirring from the anxiety, raced through him and replaced skin with scales in a flash of fire. "Well...y'all already said all of the important stuff. Things aren't much better for us in the US. We've got more problems with humans than ever. Just today…"

He hesitated. Was it wise to mention his arrest? Well, he was already this far. Jake pressed on, "Today I even got nabbed by the feds, and they already knew who I was. They had been looking for me for _weeks_ , and they had photos, videos, everything. We got it all taken care of!" he added quickly, noticing the rampant whispering striking up around him. "But this kinda stuff is gonna keep goin' down unless we do something. So...yeah."

With that, Jake pulled back his chi and returned to human form. Councilor Kulde nodded below. "Thank you, American Dragon. We'll certainly be looking forward to your official report."

Lao Shi leaned forward in his seat. "Sit down young dragon! You don't know what you're doing!"

"Yeah, I do," Jake hissed back. "More than you might think."

Fu whispered, "Kid, there's a lot that-"

"Does anyone else wish to join the vote?" said Councilor Kulde, voice amplified below. There was no response from the stands, where dozens still stood in defiance of the rest.

"Very well," he continued. "Who among you would offer your scale?"

It was clear they didn't hold a majority. The Vote would undoubtedly fail, but its importance still pushed Jake to remain standing with the others. Somehow this was what they had to do. The longer they stood there in defiance of the rest, the more he knew it to be true. And as Fred had said, it was up to them to be louder. After all, there was nothing the Dragon Order respected more than its theatrical traditions.

Once again, Jake assumed his dragon form in a burst of flame. "I will."

The arena was silent.

Such a hush hadn't been heard in hours. Jake saw a variety of expressions in those faces: shock, outrage, annoyance. Even those standing with him had wide eyes. To Jake, it felt as though the air itself were once again growing thick, trying to suffocate him.

" _Pssst, kid!_ " Fu gestured up to him swiftly, waving him down with his paws. " _Sit! Down!_ "

Councilor Kulde's voice returned below. "American Dragon, are you _absolutely certain_ …"

"I offer my scale too!"

The audience snapped toward the other end of the Arena, noticing for the first time that Fred now stood in his yellow dragon form as well. The Aussie's maw was crumpled in a broad grin as he looked determinedly at Jake. "I offer my scale too," he repeated, almost breathless.

The man by his side transformed in a flash of fire. "I offer my scale!"

"And mine!" said the woman behind them, now transformed as well.

"Me too!" joined the fourth of their group.

And just like before, another dragon appeared to 'offer their scale'. Then another followed. And another. It wasn't long before half of those standing did so as dragons, and still more came forth. When the last shout came, most of those standing had committed to the oath while the rest of the stands were alight with yells and shouts from every direction.

Jake was surprised by the outrage. What good did it serve for the dissenters among them to keep arguing? Nothing would change, and they'd already spent hours defending their points. It had been about open discussion before, but now it just felt frustrating.

"Oh, this is bad. Bad, bad, bad," said Fu, staring out over the arena. Sun was silent beside Jake with a hand over her mouth. Lao Shi quietly bowed his head on his other side with hands folded and eyes shut.

"Peace!" shouted Kulde, his voice booming over the crowd. "Peace, everyone!"

Jake shifted to his human form. "Okay, what gives? Why's everyone flippin' out?"

Fu glared at him with his paws on his hips. "Gee, I don't know Mr. Big-Shot! Why do you think?"

"You offered your scale Jake," said Sun. "Do you know what you've just done? You and the others?"

"All we did was stand up for what we thought was right!" Jake tried and failed to keep his tone level. "I mean come on, one of our three pillars is courage!" He dug beneath his shirt and yanked out his necklace, the one that Fu had used to track him. "And you guys told me to be brave, to practice being a leader! That's what we're doing!"

"He who sits at his foe's table holds no fears. _That_ is what I told you." His grandfather looked up at him, but the anger that Jake had anticipated wasn't there. He saw only worry. "Finding strength in cooperation, through compromise. _Wisdom_ , young dragon. That was the lesson. What you've done is too reckless." Lao Shi looked over the arena, still alive with furious discord. "The price is too great."

"Price?" Jake squinted at his dragon master. "What price?"

* * *

Trixie folded her arms, her lips pursing. "What kinda price are we talkin' here?"

Jake didn't answer right away. Days after the Summit had been concluded, the truth of it all was still sinking in for him. Three days they had mingled and trained with dragons from around the world, but this year's annual gathering had felt different. Everyone had been distracted, focused only on the rumors spreading like wildfire about the Vote. Even Hailey had been cold and uncaring toward him, though he suspected it was for other reasons. He and Fu had just returned the night before, and a day full of classes had kept Jake from meeting up with his friends until now. And still, sitting with them beneath a tree at the quad, he couldn't seem to find the right words to explain it all.

Fu Dog lifted his head and looked around. Apparently satisfied that no one within earshot was watching them, he answered, "The Evanescence, the mind-wipe thingy? It don't come free, doll face. An artifact with that kind of power needs an energy source; something rare and incredibly strong."

Spud called out from his spot against the tree, "Like what?"

Jake sighed. "Souls."

"Dragon souls, to be specific," added Fu.

No one said anything for a minute or two. Jake imagined Trixie and Spud sharing a bewildered look, or maybe gaping at him. He didn't look away from the book in his hands to check, though. There were still fifty or so pages he had to get through before lecture tomorrow.

Trixie whistled. "Damn."

"How does one find, transport, or use a dragon soul, exactly?" asked Spud.

"It's the same as my chi," said Jake. "Remember how the Dragon Council took my powers before, years ago?"

"Yeah, they put their hands together and sucked that blue energy gunk right outta you. Like a tractor beam, or some kind of magical vacuum!" Spud chuckled to himself and sighed. "Good times."

"Well the artifact does the same thing," said Fu, his voice more hushed. He watched as two girls walked by, waiting until they were only feet away before rolling over and panting at them with a lolling tongue and his best puppy-dog eyes.

The girls cringed and hurried their pace in the opposite direction. Fu watched them leave and growled. "Snobs." He rolled back onto his belly and picked idly at one of the many holes in the ground. These, along with scraps of paper and other scattered garbage, were the only remnants of the fair from the previous week. "Anyway, the artifact can siphon away a dragon's chi and use it as fuel. It can even do it no matter where that dragon is, but only if they have that dragon's heartscale."

"Which I gave them after my test," groaned Jake.

"And then offered up for them to use at the Summit, in front of hundreds of other dragons," said Fu. "Have I mentioned how stupid that was yet? Because it really was. Stupid, that is."

"And for the thousandth time, I didn't know they meant it _literally!_ " Jake's hand rested over the center of his chest. Thousands of miles away, his missing scale was stuck on a stone pillar alongside hundreds of others in that dark, ominous Sanctum, waiting to be used. "I thought it just sounded fancy. You know, like a turn of phrase or something."

Trixie scooted over the grass closer to them. "But Jakey, if they take your chi then-"

"-no more powers." Jake still stared at his book. He couldn't remember the last time he'd turned the page. "No more American Dragon."

Spud chuckled, "Well that would be harshin' big time! Good thing that Vote didn't win, right?"

Jake and Fu were silent.

Trixie read their expressions. "Oh, now you're trippin'! You said there were _way_ more of your peeps against it! How could it win?"

A drawn out, rumbling sigh escaped Fu. "It only takes one dragon to win the Vote," he said. "That way anyone that feels that strongly about the Vote can beat out the majority. 'Course, those who go for it have to give up their scales. Everyone ends up happy - the naysayers don't have to risk their powers, and those pushing for the Vote get to try and prove their point. You know, 'cause that worked out so great the first two times.

"The Council's pretty good about being able to talk one or two dragons out of it, but this time's different." Fu looked sideways at Jake and raised an eyebrow. "Guessin' Kangaroo Jack didn't spell all that out for you, huh?"

"So that's it then?" said Trixie. "Y'all are really going through with it?"

Jake shook his head. "We don't know yet. The Council wanted to meet with some of the bigger groups of magical creatures before they pull the trigger. If they're game, then-"

" _Jake!_ "

They all looked up to see Merida running across the quad in their direction, waving cheerily with an armful of books. Her bell-bottom jeans and floppy wide-brim hat gave the impression that she'd just arrived from the 70's. Jake couldn't argue, however, with how well the clothes concealed her horns, hooves, and legs.

Jake closed his book and sat up. "Hey Merida, how's it-"

"Is it true?" she called, stopping directly in front of them and dropping to her knees so that she and Jake were face to face. "I just read about it in the latest issue of _Magic Weekly_!" She pulled a magazine from her stack of literature and showed it to them. "Is the Dragon Council really going to tell the world about magic?!"

Jake shushed her, looking about nervously. "Cool it," he whispered as he grabbed the magazine. The glossy cover page was a panoramic shot of the Isle of Draco swarming with dragons. Fat letters bordering the photo spelled out ' _The end of secrecy - dragons to side with humans and reveal all magical creatures!_ '.

"Word spreads fast. And that's not totally fair," growled Fu, glancing at Jake. "Only _some_ dragons are siding with humans."

Merida's hands shook as she squealed with glee. "I knew it! I knew, knew, _knew_ it!"

Spud hummed over Jake's shoulder, "You're taking the news surprisingly well."

"It's only all I've ever dreamed of!" she laughed. "What I wouldn't give to be able to just be _me_ for a change. Wal probably won't like it, though, and neither will Zachary. I get the feeling they like pretending they're normal, but hiding isn't living!" She smiled at Jake more brightly, "You get it, don't you Jake?"

The question caught him off guard. After enduring the remaining two days of the Dragon Summit surrounded by disgruntled dragons, Merida's enthusiasm was jarring. Jake had almost forgotten the potential good that he had hoped would come of the Vote. The satyress also made him realize a point he'd never considered - revealing magical creatures included exposing dragons as well.

The thought of the world knowing Jake Long was a dragon twisted his stomach into knots.

The bell tower at the end of the quad began to toll. Trixie's head snapped up at the sound, and she cursed softly to herself. "I've gotta go," she said hurriedly, jumping to her feet and brushing off her pants.

"What's the rush?" asked Jake.

"Interviewing for a lab position. I've gotta start getting some research experience or I'll never get into med school." She sped off along the sidewalk, calling back, "We'll pick this up later!"

"I have to head out too," said Merida. She rose to her feet, still grinning and trembling ever so slightly. "The others and I are having a get together in a few days, you should come!"

Jake nodded absently. "Sure thing."

As she left, Fu heaved himself up as well. "I should get back to the office. If _Magic Weekly_ is running the story, there's bound to be a whole mess of problems stirring up."

"Call me if there's anything serious," said Jake.

"You mean like offering your heartscale? What, too soon?" The Shar Pei chuckled to himself as he trotted away from Jake's glare. "I'm just yankin' your chain! Or not - it was _really stupid!_ "

Fu's departure left Jake and Spud alone in the shade. Spud seemed content to lounge against the tree with his beanie slipped down over his eyes, so Jake flipped his book back open. They were half way through _The Iliad_ already, and events in the story were finally starting to get interesting. No matter how many times he read the same page, however, the words refused to stick in his mind. It seemed there were just too many other thoughts taking up space.

"You know," Spud prompted after some time, "I'm impressed. You still haven't asked me or Trix about Rose yet. That's some killer self-restraint, dude."

Jake shrugged. He hoped Spud's beanie kept him from seeing the clenching of his fingers around his book.

"Trix tried talking to her, but all she got was a shoulder as cold as a yeti's big toe."

"How would you even-" Jake abandoned the thought. "Never mind. You just stick to your stuff, Spud. You've got enough on your plate without all this business. I'll be fine."

"If you say so, bud. But to be honest, my plate's lookin' pretty fine these days."

"You haven't done anything for your classes yet, have you?"

"Does being lazy in public for eight hours straight count?"

"No."

"Then that would be a negative."

Jake closed his book, for good this time, and slung his backpack over his shoulder as he stood. "Spud my man, you're really starting to worry me. And not the normal kind of worrying. Let's head back to the Crest and try to get some work done, yeah?"

Spud slipped the beanie back on top of his head and pointed a finger at Jake. "Fine, but only if I get the corner without the dripping pipe!"

"Deal."

The boy finally got to his feet and together they started the walk toward their dormitory's hill. As they went, Jake's mind drifted to the phone in his pocket. The device was suspiciously quiet, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it was only the calm before the storm. Depending on how things evolved over the coming days, life as he knew it might never be the same.

And there was nothing he could do about it now but sit and wait.

The itch finally got to him. Jake reached into his pocket to check the device and felt something else brush against his fingers. Digging deeper, he pulled out a crumpled bit of paper and recognized it as the flier for David's fraternity. The schedule listed several events that they would be hosting in the coming week for their semester rush. Rather than dismissing it like before, though, Jake now found himself much more intrigued by the flier.

It was going to take a lot to get his mind off Rose and the Vote, and studying would only get him so far.

* * *

The sky burned a furious red, streaked by sheets of flat, scarlet clouds whose shadows stretched to the horizon. Even with the sun retired for the evening and out of sight, there was an almost oppressive heat filling the air. Shade was useless against the oven-like weather. All one could do was appreciate the ripples radiating from the asphalt streets and escape to the nearest shelter with air conditioning.

The weather was enough to make Jake sweat as he and Spud walked along the sidewalk a few blocks away from the Crest, glancing at the houses they passed as they followed the map on Jake's phone. He tugged at the collar of his button-up shirt and wiped a sleeve across his damp forehead. "Did Trix ever get back to you Spud?"

Spud, who still wore his usual street-clothes, checked his phone. "Yeah, said she can't make it. Something about having to study for some class."

"On a Friday night? Homegirl's got all weekend for that kind of stuff." Jake wiped at his forehead again, only to find that the shirt was already soaked through. Cringing, he undid his cuffs and rolled them up to his elbows, burying the stains out of sight. "Then again, can't really blame her for wanting to stay inside. It's like-"

"-hiking in a volcano? Walking through a sauna on the Sun? No, more like-"

"Dude, what is up with these metaphors lately?"

"Similes."

"You're pushing it."

Spud smiled to himself, and he hid his own discomfort well. His sagging wet beanie and wrinkled shirt drooping with moisture, however, weren't so convincing. They had both realized early on that the heat was an unavoidable part of life in California. The real challenge was acclimating to the exhausting weather, a task that was apparently going to take longer than they had anticipated.

The two of them rounded another street corner, passing further into residential areas with narrow streets lined by small trees and shrubs. The transition from college campus to classic suburbia was sudden and jarring from Jake's perspective. He wasn't going to complain about it, though. The closer the frat houses, the less walking in the heat they had to endure.

"There," Spud said, pointing ahead. "Think that's it?"

Jake looked up from his phone and found the house - a typical double story just like those around it, but with a few distinguishing features. Three large Greek letters were affixed to the wall above the front door, a mixture of neon tubes and Christmas lights shone from inside most of the windows, and the first floor already appeared overflowing with people around their own age. There wasn't a free parking spot found on the street near the place, and Jake could already feel the vibrations from a bass speaker shaking his bones.

He nodded. "No doubt."

"This is it, bud. Time to find some hot chicks and get our _freak_ on, know what I'm sayin'?"

"Spud?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe don't lead with that."

They had reached the front steps of the lively residence. Spud thumped a closed fist on Jake's shoulder. "Rule number one: chicks dig confidence. At least, that's what my mom always says." And with that, he boldly strode toward the party, moving head first into the boisterous, undulating crowd. He was lost to the party in seconds.

Jake was surprised by this outgoing side of his lifelong friend. Thinking on it, though, Spud had always answered to his own impulses more than the opinions of others. This was a rare occasion where the trait seemed to work in his benefit. Meanwhile, Jake still hesitated outside on the lawn. Spud may not have had the greatest social skills in the world, but, frankly, Jake envied his guts.

 _Courage_ , Jake thought to himself. He sucked in a deep breath and lifted his chin, forcing himself up the steps. _You dealt with the DMC, you dealt with the Summit, you can deal with a house party._

The bodies weren't wall to wall, but Jake still had to twist and turn to maneuver between them. Music blasted from some corner of the room, competing against the shouts of conversation for what was left of Jake's hearing. The sky outside was fading into darkness, leaving the room only dimly lit by colorful, strobing lights and scattered fluorescent lamps. Jake wove his way between chatting and swaying groups until he'd reached the rough center of the main room, then surveyed the area for Spud. Unfamiliar backs and faces surrounded him, however. Jake's lanky friend, if he were even in the same room, was lost in the throng of adolescents.

Jake searched around him, unsure of what to do next. There were several groups of people nearby, and this was a party after all. The social thing to do would be to introduce himself and join a conversation, or find some way to slip in naturally. Thinking of the best way to do so, however, just left him standing awkwardly and feeling flustered. Then of course came with it a wave of embarrassment at his own sudden timidity. Where had this reserved attitude come from? Where was the animated showboat from years past?

Fingers clasped over his shoulder and spun him around. Guilty relief came over Jake as turned toward Spud, but it was quickly dissipated as he instead faced a muscular youth of his own height. David Ramirez appreciated him with a surprised grin. "Jake! I didn't think you were gonna make it!"

"Hey David, what's hangin'?" said Jake, reflexively bumping knuckles with the RA from Kadrick Crest. He still didn't know much about the upperclassmen, but based on what he'd heard from Trixie the Crest didn't appear to emphasize community bonding as heavily as some of the other dorms. As far as Jake was concerned, the privacy was a welcome attribute of their otherwise subpar dwelling.

David hooked his arm around Jake's shoulders and leaned in, not having to shout so loudly in the closer quarters. "I'm crazy glad you're here, but you know this is the last event for our rush, right? Normally applicants have to attend at least two to be considered, it was on the flier!"

"Well, I-"

"You know what?" the boy jeered, waving his hand dismissively. "It's no big deal. Let me talk to the other Tri-Gam guys and we'll make an exception for you! But only because you're from the Crest, am I right?"

"Hold up a sec, David," chuckled Jake, shaking his head. "Don't hate me, but I'm not really looking to rush for your fraternity. I was just kind of hoping to party, you know? Meet some people, dance, that kind of stuff. I mean...if that's okay with you guys?"

David stared at him for a moment, just slightly cross-eyed, before erupting into boisterous laughter. "Well why didn't you say so?" he said. "Most of these people are here for the same reason - everyone knows that Tri-Gam throws the best parties!" He lifted his arm from Jake's shoulders and patted him solidly in the back, pointing off in the direction of the back of the house with his other hand. "There's food and drinks that way. Two punch bowls, one for taste and the other for fun. Help yourself and have a good time!"

"Thanks!" shouted Jake, heading through the crowd in the direction David had indicated. He waved back at him as he went, eager to reach the refreshments. The walk had certainly made him thirsty, but he was more thrilled to have a goal other than standing helpless in the middle of the living room.

He found a row of covered fold-out tables bridging the living room and kitchen, lined up beside the open doors to the equally packed back patio. The crowd was thicker here with people clustering around bowls and platters filled different snack foods. Jake skipped past them to the end and snatched up a red plastic cup, wasting no time in ladling it full of punch from one of the two large bowls. He downed the juice in a single gulp and sighed contentedly at the refreshing citrus taste.

"That good, huh?"

Jake turned toward the voice. A girl stood back against the wall, holding a cup like his with the other arm folded. She watched him with a hint of a smile and a perked eyebrow.

"Yeah," he answered, short of breath from chugging his drink. "The weather here is straight up killing me."

"You're not the only one," she said, lifting her arm and nodding toward it. "A word of advice, wear tank tops. Can't have any pit stains if there's no pit to stain. Or you can go with the anti-perspirant stuff, but it'll cost you."

He looked to her noodle strap top, then back to his own button-up. Dark pools of sweat the size of his fists had covered each of his armpits. "Aw man," he muttered.

The girl's smile widened. "I take it you're not from around here?"

"Nah," he said, joining her against the wall and folding his arms to hide the sweat under his arms. Putting something solid against his back made him feel a little safer from the swelling crowd of people. "East-coast, NYC."

"Ooh, I've always wanted to visit New York City. Seems like fun." She took a sip from her cup and jerked her chin toward him. "Ever been to the Statue of Liberty? Or the Empire State Building?"

Jake laughed and rolled his eyes. "Basically every day, they're mostly tourist traps." He looked at her again as a sudden feeling of déjà vu came over him. "Do I know you?"

"Took you long enough. We have class together."

"Which…" Straight black hair, brown eyes, dimples, it dawned on him in an instant. "Core Humanities! With Ms. Connally!"

" _Dr._ Connally," she corrected. "That was pretty gutsy of you, falling asleep in the third row. Most people do it in the back where no one can see them."

"It was _one time_ ," groaned Jake. He softened, however, as he noticed her laughing to herself quietly. He held his hand out toward her. "I'm Jake, by the way. Jake Long."

She took it in her own and shook it. "Elizabeth, call me Liz. Here," she took Jake's empty cup and edged past a laughing couple toward the punch bowls. A minute later she returned and handed Jake back his cup, both it and her own nearly full.

"How much do I owe you?" he joked, sipping the drink.

Liz smiled. "It's on the house...uh hey, are you okay?"

Jake nodded, but couldn't do much to fix the fierce grimace that tugged at his face. A shudder ran down the center of his spine as he tried to swallow the awful taste away. The punch, if it could be called that, now tasted _horrendous_ , as though someone had replaced the juice with turpentine and gasoline. He had taken another large gulp, unaware of the change and now wishing desperately for something other than the nauseating concoction to wash it down.

"Are you sure?" asked Liz. "Because you look like you're going to throw up. I think I saw a trash can-"

"I'm good," he choked out. He'd forced the drink down, but a burning sensation was still spreading from his throat all the way up into his sinuses. It almost felt as though he were breathing fire. He huffed a breath against his open hand, expecting smoke or steam but finding none. "No offense, but this stuff is rank, yo!"

"Rank?" Liz took a draw from her own cup, smacked her lips, and shrugged. "I mean it's not top shelf, but I've had worse. You don't like it?"

Jake had unconsciously gawked at the girl and her apparent imperviousness to the nauseating drink. He shook himself out of the trance. "W-well not really...but I guess it's not terrible," he lied. Raising the cup back to his lips, he took another, much smaller, sip and forced himself to keep a straight face. Again, the liquid seared its way down the back of his throat and down into his stomach. Trying to get it down quickly didn't seem to help in the slightest.

Liz watched him and returned to smiling, apparently satisfied. "So, what brought you so far away from home?"

"Friends, mostly," he said. "From high school. They both got in here, and I...just happened to get lucky. I thought, well, what have I got to lose, right?"

"Sure," she agreed. She took another sip from her cup, and so did Jake. Mimicry seemed the safest option for the moment. If everyone else was drinking the gnarly stuff without a problem, it'd probably be best for him to go along with it. This time he tried not breathing through his nose. It worked at first, until he finally had to breathe. Then the awful taste just came back in one huge, terrible wave.

"What about you?" he asked between coughs. "You from around here?"

"LA, born and raised." She smirked to herself, looking out over the crowd. The house seemed full to bursting, and the pounding music was louder than ever. Here at the back of the room, however, they seemed to have their own bubble of space for the two of them. "In-state tuition was cheap, and my parents let me live in the dorms. It seemed like my best chance to just...well, get away."

"Away from what?"

"Everything. Nothing," she said. Her voice was withdrawn, but Jake had no problem hearing her clearly. "I'm not sure. My family is great, don't get me wrong. But senior year of high school, getting ready to graduate, I didn't really have a plan. There wasn't anything that really drove me. And I couldn't stay at home living off my parents. It was either pick some minimum-wage job or go to college. So, here I am, you know?"

"Yeah," said Jake. "I think I do."

They stood there for a few minutes, watching the party unfolding around them and taking turns drinking from their cups. Jake was forcing down another gulp, thinking (possibly optimistically) that the taste wasn't quite as bad as before, when Liz started chuckling to herself.

Jake turned to her. "What's so funny?"

She shook her head and brushed a stray hair behind her ear. "We're at a party in college! This is supposed to be the best time of our lives, and here I am being all depressing with someone I just met."

"Harsh, girl. I thought we were at least acquaintances by now. Here, my turn." Jake took her cup from her and carefully edged his way back to the refreshment tables. The platters of snacks were already picked clean, and one of the punch bowls had vanished. Jake filled their cups from the one remaining and returned to Liz, handing her own cup back. "Now we're even."

She tipped her raised cup to him and sipped from it, a few drops dripping down the side of her red-tinged cheek.

A buzzing from Jake's pocket drew him away from his own cup. Instantly, the sensation made his hair stand on end and sent his heart racing. The room around him vanished, strangers, strobing lights, and all. His thoughts were once again on the Vote, running wild with speculation.

The only reason he'd be contacted was if the Council had finished deliberating, and he felt deep down that he knew their answer. The Dragon Order was going to go through with it; they would reveal magic to the world and throw it into chaos. There wasn't a remote chance that they could make it work, everyone knew it. But they would use this chance as an example for the magical world. When everything inevitably fell through, it would be Jake and the others who paid the price with their chi.

And before that, for however long they could make it last, the world would know who, or rather _what_ , Jake really was.

He retrieved his phone from his pocket, fingers trembling, and checked the screen. There was a new text message from an unknown number.

 _This is Merida!_ it read. _We're going out for midnight milkshakes! Wanna come?_

The phone nearly slipped from Jake's fingers as the tension left him. He leaned his head up against the wall, unaware of the small splash of his drink that had spilled to the floor.

"Somewhere you need to be?"

He looked back to Liz, who nodded to the phone still barely held in his grasp. It took him a moment to think on her words, crawling back to reality, then another to decide on his response. "No," he answered, fingers moving over the screen. "Just a text from someone in another class."

 _Sorry_ , he typed, fingers still shaking. _Can't tonight. Some other time._

Message sent, he slid the device back into his pocket. Liz still seem to be watching him closely, though. He felt a quiet tension stirring between them, interrupting what had been a surprisingly easy, natural conversation. Jake searched for some other train of thought to pursue and found himself saying aloud, "Can I, uh, ask you something?"

"Sure," she said. "It's only fair, I was the one being all touchy-feely first."

"It's kind of random, but...have you ever done something you thought was right, but it just ended up pissing off everyone else?"

She pursed her lips in thought. "Well, there was this one girl in fifth grade that stole my friend's pencil case, so I put a lizard in her desk." Liz shrugged indifferently. "No one tattled on me because she was kind of a bully, so the whole class got in trouble - no recess for a week. Everyone blamed me for it, even my friend."

"Did you regret it?" he asked, maybe too eagerly.

"A little, but I was just so tired of seeing her get whatever she wanted, you know?" She hiccupped into her cup and smirked. "Plus, she never noticed that I stole the pencil case back. So I'd say we were even. What, did you mess something up recently?"

"Well kind of, but...no, it was sort of...ugh." Words were coming sluggishly to Jake's mind, like they were wading through a mire on the way to his mouth. He drummed impatient knuckles over his head. Why was he even trying to talk about this? "I have these... _friends_ , right? And I wanted to do something that would show people who we were, to help us out! It's like...something I'm cool with, but my _friends_ worried it would change how everyone else treated us if they knew about it. Have you ever had anything like that?"

Her eyes, now closer to black in the dim lighting, watched him with apparent confusion. "Um...no?"

"Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess I'm not making a lot of sense."

Slowly, Liz's eyebrows lifted and her mouth sagged in a look of apparent understanding. Her expression just as soon began to droop, however, and her enthusiasm seemed to fade. "Actually, I think I know what you mean."

Jake perked up. "You do?"

She nodded and leaned closer, speaking in a low, soft tone, "And I don't think you should be worried. I'm not sure what it's like in New York, but most people in LA are totally cool with that kind of stuff. I mean, at least the people I hang out with."

"Wait-" Jake leaned in as well and hissed, "You mean you _know_ about us?"

"Well sure," she mumbled, looking around them abashed. "Guys liking other guys? It's pretty common."

Jake slowly straightened from their huddled conversation, processing the words carefully in his sluggish mind. Eventually he managed to ask, "Do you think I'm gay?"

"Is homosexual a better term?" she asked in a delicate tone. "Or bisexual, queer, trans...I mean it doesn't matter to me! You can be whatever you want." Liz quickly shook her head and flung her hands in front of her as if to fend him off, her drink sloshing over the rim of her cup. "No, no, no, not that you can _choose_ who you do and don't like, right? Because you can't, you know? Oh God, that didn't come out right."

A quiet snickering had been building up in Jake, growing stronger and stronger as she panicked to the point where he now stood leaning back, head tilted to the ceiling with rolling laughter that was beyond containment. Pure hilarity held him captive, laughing and laughing until he was clutching his chest and ready to fall from dizziness if not for the wall behind him.

"Girl!" he wheezed, rubbing away tears to see her clearly. "No offense, but you've got it _all_ wrong. Take it from me, Jake Long is all about fine honeys like yourself."

Liz put a hand on her hip, her already furiously blushing cheeks pulling back in a smirk. She laughed along, "Oh, is that so?"

Jake winked and tipped his cup to her, realizing that it was empty once again. "Most definitely. I wouldn't lie about something like that."

Liz looked out over the cramped living room, still full of energetic dancers, and set her cup down on a nearby table among dozens of other abandoned drinks. She grabbed Jake's hand, eyes wide and white teeth shining behind a devilish smile. "Prove it."

Whatever she was insinuating Jake couldn't know for certain, particularly with his thoughts so beleaguered. He was pretty sure, however, that he liked the way her smooth hand felt in his and he didn't want to let go just yet. So, he set his cup down by hers and let her drag him into the thick of the party.

Further and further in they went, until they were just another pair in the mass of the swaying bodies and strobing lights.

* * *

Falling.

That was all Jake could feel, the only thing he knew. He was falling. Falling, falling, falling, on and on he fell. He couldn't tell where. Up, down, maybe _everywhere_. At least, that's what it felt like. Falling in every direction at once, almost like he was in one of the enchanted elevators. No, it was worse than that - more like an elevator that not only plummeted downwards, but did so spinning, twisting, tumbling.

Still Jake fell. Why wouldn't it just stop? The sensation was unbearable. Eventually he tried reaching out, but there was a weakness entrapping him. He had to move, though, or he'd just keep falling. So he pushed harder, and harder, forcing some kind of change. At last an arm shifted, then a leg, flailing in whatever way they could. But they were no help. Further and further he fell, tumbling on and on-

A hand found purchase. Jake felt the surface, course and cold but definitely solid. He pressed harder on it and at last felt stable. There was a definite 'down' - a sense of direction he'd been desperately lacking, and which now let him focus on the rest of his muggy senses. The dizziness drifted away and with it went the sensation of falling. Gradually, the world became tangible and clear.

And he could _clearly_ see that it was painfully bright outside.

"Ughhh…" was all he could groan. He felt his cheek slip over the edge of whatever he was lying on. His head dangled there limply, agreeing with his hand in which way was truly 'down'. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but at least his stomach was staying in one place.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Something jutted beneath Jake's head, a hard edge that stuck right into the side of his jaw and propped it up. "Hurl in the can! In - the - can!"

Despite the light's blinding intensity, Jake forced his eyes open. A haze shrouded his sight. He blinked it away and squinted up at the voice. "Spud?" he moaned, trying and failing to groggily lift his head. "What are you doing?"

Spud stood above him, helmet on his head and duct tape around his torso holding two pillows to his front. He held a raised bottle of water by his head, reared back as if waiting to throw either it or its contents. "Hm? This?" he asked, gesturing to his apparel. "It was all that I could reach from the desk. By the way, do you think you could, you know, de-dragon? Dragon down? Unscale-ify? Whenever you get the chance, no rush or anything."

Jake lifted his head again, this time raising it a few inches. A wave of vertigo immediately crashed over him, as though he were on a ship listing over rolling waves. Reflexively, he reached out and grabbed hold of something solid beside his head that felt like a metal bar. "Where am I? Ugh, my head is _killing_ me…"

"Okay I lied, there's kind of a rush. Change back? Right now? Please, please, please-"

The sudden dizziness and nausea helped bring Jake into the present. He looked around as Spud begged frantically, and slowly recognized the interior of their room at the Crest. The space had always been small, but it felt as if it had shrunk by half if that were even possible. From where Jake was lying, he could stretch out and touch the opposite wall of the room with ease, maybe even the ceiling if he really reached for it.

Of course that wasn't saying much, considering how much his dragon form dwarfed the cramped dormitory.

"Oh!" Jake pulled on his chi, dragging it back into his core. The change wasn't as fast as it could've been but he returned to his human body all the same, including his wrinkled and frankly malodorous outfit from yesterday. Only now did he appreciate the discomforts he'd been sleeping through; the stabbing pain from a wing bent awkwardly beneath him, the stiff hips and knees from legs tucked inward, and the rails above jabbing him in the side as he'd squeezed into the bottom bunk of their bed.

"Dude," Spud sighed, mirroring Jake's own relief. He unclipped his helmet and tossed it aside, revealing a sweaty, tangled mess of hair that matched the bags beneath his eyes. "I'll be honest, this has been sort of a stressful night for me. Maybe no more parties for the next few weeks...or months...or ever."

Jake dropped his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. He managed to avoid hitting his head on the bunk above him, despite the lingering dizziness. The daylight, however, was another obstacle entirely. "Spud," he said, shielding his eyes from the rays refracting off the object that the boy had shoved beneath his head a moment before, "what's up with the - what is that, a disco ball?"

"Trash can, in case you puked again. I wasn't really sure what to do after you set the bush outside on fire, and all I could find was some tin foil, so there! Foil can!"

Jake glared at him through the sunlight. "I set _what_ on fire?!"

"The bush!" Spud jerked a thumb at the open blinds. "It was right after you flew us back here, ripped off the screen, and climbed in through the window."

Jake jumped to his feet, a decision he immediately regretted as he buckled under the suddenly pronounced vertigo. He caught himself on the frame of the bunk bed and lumbered toward the window. The blinds snapped open in a flash as he yanked the drawstring, and he was greeted with a pleasant breeze and a bright, cloudless sky. Judging by the direction of the Sun's wilting glare, it had to be past noon.

Three stories below beside the pale-yellow lawn, Jake indeed found a pile of charred ashes where a sad shrub had once stood among others in a row along the building. Beside it, a square of thin wire that had once been the bug screen for their window sat bent and torn, tears along its center where claws had ripped it free of its frame. A thin bed of rocks surrounding the bushes was likely all that saved the dry grass from a similarly combusted fate.

"Did you say we _flew_ back here?" said Jake.

"Oh yeah," came Spud's answer from behind. "I finally got you to leave around one or two in the morning. Then while we were walking back you started betting how fast you could fly us back here. I tried to tell you it was a bad idea, but you went all ' _dragon-up_ ' and picked me up anyway. But it's probably fine, I mean who's looking out their window in the middle of the night, right?"

"And the bush?"

Spud chuckled, "You puked big time. And not just normal puke, like crazy awesome _flaming_ puke! I didn't know you could do that! So metal."

Birds chirped and cars drove by as Jake stared out of the window, dazed and growing only more so as the afternoon wore on. _What the hell happened last night?_

A scratching noise came from their closed door. Jake snapped around in a panic, but Spud joyfully stood from his place against the wall, groaning, "Finally! The Spudster's been runnin' on fumes for hours."

Jake reached after him. "Hold up, who's there?"

"Reinforcements. I couldn't leave because you were kind of blocking the whole room all night, and I had no idea when you were gonna be waking up." Spud pulled the door open with a twist of the handle. "So, I called backup!"

A laden grocery bag clamped in his jaws, Fu Dog sat in the doorway on his haunches with a distinctly satisfied grin. At least, that's how his wrinkled muzzle appeared to Jake. "Wakey wakey," he growled around the plastic in his mouth, sauntering into the room and dropping the bag at Spud's feet. "Looks like I got here just in time. By the way, that guy at the front desk is sleeping on the job."

Spud dug through the bag and pulled out a tall black can decorated with neon green and pink lettering. He clutched the drink to his chest with a squeal of delight. "Fu," he popped the tab, took a long drag, and sighed contentedly, "you are literally, like, my favorite talking dog in the whole world."

"Tell me something I don't know." The Shar Pei reached into the bag and pulled out another drink, this one a clear plastic bottle filled with translucent red liquid. He held it out toward Jake. "And one for our little party dragon."

Focused on his unsteady feet, Jake stepped over and accepted the bottle. The label was blurry and difficult to read as he tried to shield his eyes from the light. "What is it, some kind of potion? But how'd you know that I was all messed up?"

Fu burst into laughter, smacking a paw over his drum-like belly. "How'd I know, he says! Kid, I've been around a _long_ time and seen my fair share of weekend benders, believe me. Being a dragon don't mean you get to hit the sauce that hard and walk away the next morning." He wiped a tear from his eye, still chuckling to himself. "I'm not usually one to say I told you so, but come on! Do I know how to call 'em or what?"

Jake groaned, his headache growing more pronounced with the effort of trying to understand his animal guardian. "Fu, I'm seriously out of it right now so you're going to have to be more specific. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh huh," said Fu, rolling his eyes. "Like you don't know what this is. Just admit it kid, the old man wasn't totally wrong to give you that tracking charm. I'm just glad you found your way back home."

"But I don't even remember _coming back!_ "

"Partial memory loss," said Spud. The boy was finishing the dregs of his energy drink in one hand and reading off the phone in his other. "Irritability, definitely. And nausea and vomiting! Light sensitivity, headaches, dizziness, all symptoms of-"

"A hangover," finished Fu. "And a pretty good one at that."

"Hangover?" Jake shook his head, muttering, "That's impossible, the only thing I was drinking the whole night was-"

 _The punch_. A jarring memory came back to Jake, when David had told him where to find food and drinks at the start of the party. He'd said there were two punch bowls, one for taste and the other…

Jake clapped a hand over his face. "The fun bowl."

"Congratulations kid, you've officially gotten wasted at a college party. And it only took two weeks!" Fu dog snickered to himself, "The old man owes me some biscuits. Now drink up. That stuff's made for two things - little kids with the runs, and hangovers."

Jake sidled back to their bunks and sat on the end of his bed. "I didn't even know what I was drinking! And I _definitely_ didn't like the stuff. It tasted awful. But Liz kept filling up the cups and-" His head snapped up, just barely missing the bunk above him. "Aw man."

"Oh-ho-ho," snickered Fu. "So now there's a _Liz_ , huh? What's she like?"

Spud hummed to himself. "Hygienic, symmetrical features, seemed outgoing...I'd guess about an eight."

"I just know her from class," Jake mumbled hurriedly, digging his phone out of his pocket. There weren't any calls or messages - a lucky break. Having the device on him while in dragon form made receiving anything impossible. There was no way to know if someone tried contacting him until he reverted to his human form, but today it seemed-

The phone shook violently, vibrating and ringing as the screen flared to life. The number was displayed, but it wasn't one he recognized. Even so, Jake had the distinct feeling he knew who it was.

"Speak of the devil," teased Fu, no doubt sharing Jake's assumption. The Shar Pei eyed him with a suggestive smirk. "You need a little privacy?"

Rolling his eyes, Jake answered the call with a swipe of the icon on the screen. "Liz?" he said, holding the phone to his ear. "Is that you? I'm, uh...sorry about last night, I think. Did you make it home safe?"

There was a pause, then an unexpectedly deep, masculine voice came through the speaker. "American Dragon? Is that you?"

Another, slightly different wave of vertigo dragged Jake's stomach toward the floor. "Councilor Kulde?"

"That's correct. Is now a good time to speak?"

A hundred thoughts raced through Jake's mind. He glanced to Fu and Spud, themselves overcome with abrupt shock. His tongue uncooperative, Jake choked out, "S-Sure. Now's good."

"Then I'll get to it," the counselor said with a forced neutrality. "We've convened with the more prominent groups of magical creatures, and their responses have been surprisingly consistent. It seems they share your sentiment. Thus, the Dragon Council has decided to proceed with the Vote of Commissary."

And there it was.

Hearing the words aloud, Jake wasn't sure why he felt so surprised. It was the response he'd expected, what he'd feared but known would come to pass. Yet here he was, slowly growing nauseous. The lingering hangover wasn't to blame, but rather a sense of dread building within him. It was the death knell tolling for his encroaching end, the herald of an inevitable fate he could no longer escape.

"American Dragon?"

Jake responded automatically, muttering, "Yeah?"

"Once we've informed all those included in the Vote, we'll be calling for an emergency summit to coordinate the world dragons and decide how best to introduce ourselves. We would appreciate it if you could make arrangements and arrive at the Isle of Draco tomorrow by six in the morning your time."

"Sure," Jake said numbly. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd just agreed to. The councilor's words seemed to be travelling straight through him, their meaning lost to the call's static. The dread demanded his attention.

He moved to end the call, but Councilor Kulde's voice returned, "One last thing."

Jake returned the phone to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Regarding your scale, your request is certainly unusual, and informal. However, Lao Shi explained the situation to us and the Dragon Council is understanding of your circumstances."

Jake blinked in confusion. "My scale?"

"Indeed. It must have been a very difficult choice," said Councilor Kulde, his tone softening. "But we agree with the wisdom of the substitution, given your significance for your territory and your grandfather's notable age. With this in mind, we've gone ahead and exchanged your scale for Lao Shi's. In the future, we'd appreciate it if you could communicate decisions of such importance to us directly." The counselor cleared his throat on the other end of the call. He continued, his voice once again firm and even, "That is all for now, American Dragon. We'll be expecting you shortly. Good day."

A few high-pitched beeps marked the end of the call. Jake stared ahead still holding the device to his ear, struggling to process what had just transpired. Countless emotions now left his thoughts in turmoil. He had no idea what the Kulde was talking about, but it wasn't hard for him to figure it out.

The chi relying upon the Vote's outcome was no longer his own.

 _Gramps..._

Spud and Fu Dog still watched him with quiet concern. They waited patiently, even as Jake suddenly climbed to his feet, uncapped his bottle, and guzzled the drink down all at once.

Fu raised a paw toward him. "Jake?"

He was already moving, tearing off his sweaty clothes and pulling on a new shirt and a clean pair of shorts. More comfortable, Jake gritted his teeth against the light and left their small room to pace back and forth in front of the doorway.

Spud's head peaked out of the room. "Uh, dude?"

Between the headache, nausea, and wobbling gait, a certain clarity was evolving within Jake. An urgency filled the hole where before he had felt only doubt and uncertainty. It was clear now what he needed to do next, and by necessity what would come after that. Each realization brought with it another until what felt like a legitimate plan had unfolded itself before him. Jake shoved his way back into his dorm room and started packing his backpack, driven entirely by sudden inspiration.

It was obvious what he'd been missing, in hindsight. Before, he had been simply hoping the Vote would succeed. Now, he didn't have a choice.

"Woah, hang on kid," said Fu. The Shar Pei followed at Jake's heels, sniffing at the bag as he tossed in his laptop, books, snacks, toiletries, clothes, and phone. "Where are we going?"

"The Isle of Draco." Jake shouldered the bag, stepped into his shoes, and hurried out of the room. "But first, we're stopping by the Underdown DMC. I've gotta make a few calls."

 **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=** **O=O=O=O=O**


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